A recount failed Thursday to make a difference, as candidate Mike Buck still lost the GOP nomination to be Georgia’s next schools superintendent.
Buck requested the recount Tuesday after Secretary of State Brian Kemp certified the results from the July 22 runoff election. That tally showed Buck trailing his opponent by 713 votes out of more than 398,000 cast.
The new results, however, showed only minimal changes. Buck, the current chief academic officer for the Georgia Department of Education, gained one vote. His opponent, Irwin County educator Richard L. Woods, lost 12 votes.
Officials with the Secretary of State’s Office indicated the differences in the vote totals were limited to the count of absentee ballots.
Woods celebrated his win on his website, praising the “thousands” he had met on the campaign trail.
“This victory doesn’t go to just me, but to Georgia’s teachers and students,” Woods said. “In the months ahead, I will continue to work hard to earn every vote and to be a voice for Georgians.”
Buck conceded his loss and said he was “extremely grateful to my supporters from all over the state.”
“It was a very, very close race decided by the slimmest of margins,” he said. “It’s a reminder to all of us that each vote counts.”
Woods, now the Republican nominee to be state superintendent, will face off in November with Democrat Valarie Wilson, the former chairwoman of the Decatur school board. John Barge, the incumbent state schools chief, lost a bid in May for the Republican nomination for governor.
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