The DeKalb County elections board voted Friday night to certify the results of last month’s primary elections — including the contentious outcome of an issue-plagued local commission race.
“I can assure this board, and the people of District 2 and all other voters across DeKalb County, that their ballots have been accurately tabulated to the assigned candidates of their choice,” elections director Keisha Smith said before the vote.
The results approved in Friday’s 4-1 vote covered all party primaries conducted on May 24, including federal to statewide races. But for more than a week, the focus has been on the three-way contest for DeKalb County Commission District 2.
Officials have said a series of programming changes implemented by the secretary of state’s office ultimately created errors in the way votes for candidate Michelle Long Spears were counted.
Initial post-election results suggested Spears was in third place and out of a runoff, but she and her staff soon noticed she’d received zero election day votes in all but a few precincts in the district, which covers parts of the Decatur, Brookhaven and Atlanta areas in northwest DeKalb. That discovery ultimately triggered a three-day hand count of all ballots cast in the race.
The results of that count were released Wednesday — and showed Spears actually leading and in position for a June 21 runoff, with second-place finisher Lauren Alexander.
Marshall Orson, a longtime DeKalb school board member seeking the commission seat, had been leading in initial results. But the hand count showed him with about 1,600 fewer votes than originally reported, leaving him out of contention altogether.
That outcome is what was certified Friday.
Orson spoke during the public comment period prior to the board’s vote. He echoed concerns expressed in a letter he sent earlier in the week asking for a delay in certification, a recount and an “independent review” of the election and said there was “just simply no way there can be public confidence in the outcome of this race.”
In a statement later provided to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Orson said he would be forgoing his “personal opportunity to seek legal relief” — but would “request that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation intervene pursuant to the recent Georgia statute giving them the authority and obligation to investigation election irregularities.”
“While this will not change the outcome for me, this is the only way to get to the truth about this matter,” Orson wrote.
During the meeting, Smith, the elections director, reiterated the department’s belief that initial counts in District 2 were the result of votes being allocated improperly due to programming errors.
She outlined at length the measures the county took to ensure issues with the commission contest were rectified and results were accurate. Those included additional, post-hand count ballot inspections by county staff and regular risk-limiting checks that are completed after every election.
Smith said similar spot checks completed in other races made her confident that the District 2 issues were isolated and did not affect other races.
Board member Anthony Lewis voted against certification. But vice chair Nancy Jester said she felt the department handled things “just like we should have” and three other colleagues agrees.
“I am extremely frustrated that programming changes to the voting touchscreens and scanners initiated by the Secretary of State’s office, in conjunction with (that office’s Center for Election Systems), impacted the tabulation of votes,” board member Karli Swift said.
“While I stand behind the final vote totals being certified today, we will continue to investigate the underlying issue and our internal procedures to ensure that this does not happen again.”
The certification vote also served to formally deny any outstanding requests for recounts, the volume of which a county attorney said was “voluminous.”
The District 2 race is a Democratic primary, but with no Republicans on November’s general election ballot, the winner of the runoff between Spears and Alexander will become DeKalb’s newest commissioner-elect.
