Fulton County Commissioner Robb Pitts formally requested a recount in the commission chairman’s race Wednesday.
Pitts trailed incumbent Chairman John Eaves by just 315 votes in the final tally of ballots cast in last week’s primary election – less than 1 percent of ballots cast.
Fulton Elections Director Richard Barron said the recount will begin at 10 a.m. Thursday and likely will take four to five hours. The county will recount most votes – which were cast on touch-screen voting machines – electronically. The county also must re-scan and electronically recount about 2,000 paper ballots – mostly provisional or absentee ballots.
“The law provides for a recount in a situation where the margin of victory is less than one percent,” Pitts said Wednesday. “That’s where we are.”
In addition to the recount, Pitts has said he might file a lawsuit to challenge the election results. He has hired consultant Gary Smith, who has reviewed Fulton elections in the past, to study last week’s primary. One issue they’re looking into: Long lines at an Atlanta precinct.
Pitts called the recount “a first step in this process, and we’ll see where we go, depending on the outcome.”
Eaves and Pitts, both Democrats, are vying to face Republican Earl Cooper in the November general election.
Eaves, a two-term incumbent, has said he’s confident the election results will stand.
Pitts, a former Atlanta City Council member first elected to the County Commission in 2002, has said he’s running because he thinks Fulton needs new leadership.
Close elections are nothing new for Pitts. He came within 191 votes of forcing a runoff in the 2001 Democratic primary for the Atlanta mayor’s race. He requested a recount, but couldn’t close the gap on eventual winner Shirley Franklin.
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