Georgia election officials announced Friday they will conduct a recount of this week's state Senate runoff in which Republican JaNice Van Ness appeared to defeat Democrat Tonya Anderson.
Anderson, a former state representative from Lithonia, requested the runoff because one precinct's results didn't show any votes cast on Election Day.
Only 85 votes separated Anderson from Van Ness, a former Rockdale County commissioner, in the race to represent parts of DeKalb, Rockdale and Newton counties, according to unofficial vote counts.
At issue is the Panola Road precinct, where no votes were recorded Tuesday out of 1,304 registered voters.
“This discrepancy is more than disturbing, as it calls into question the accuracy of the results not only in this specific precinct, but every precinct involved in this election, particularly those in DeKalb County,” said Fredrick Hicks, who is Anderson’s campaign manager.
DeKalb election officials say all votes were counted, but they weren’t recorded accurately.
The Panola Road precinct is located in the same place as the Miller Grove High precinct, and all votes at Panola Road were attributed to Miller Grove, said DeKalb Elections Director Maxine Daniels.
“That was just an administrative glitch,” Daniels said. “It was just an administrative reporting process that resulted in it showing there were no votes in Panola Road, but we’ve verified that 48 people voted in the Panola precinct.”
The recount will be conducted Monday afternoon. Depending on the results of the recount, Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s office could certify the election as soon as Tuesday, said David Dove, an attorney for the Secretary of State’s Office.
“When petitioned for a recount, it’s in the secretary of state’s discretion to grant that recount, and the secretary of state decided to grant that in this case,” Dove said.
The winner of the race will represent about 172,000 residents in Senate District 43.
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