According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Democratic primary for a county in Georgia has been called into question after a hand count revealed that voting machines were off by thousands of ballots.
Democratic DeKalb County School Board member Marshall Orson, who is running for the county commission, asked the local election board on Thursday not to certify results as it was scheduled to do because of “numerous errors” with the local race, the paper noted.
Instead, he requested an “independent review” as well as a formal recount of the election in a letter to the board.
“There is no rational basis for believing that there are not continuing issues with the results and the results should not be certified with the continuing existence of multiple substantive issues and concerns,” Orson wrote. “Doing so would pose a substantial risk not only to the confidence the public will have in the overall election results from this race but could extend to the entire primary as well as the general election.”
Just the News adds:
The initial Democratic primary results showed Orson winning for commission District 2 with Lauren Alexander in second place and Michelle Long Spears in third. This would have put Orson against Alexander in a runoff election.
However, Spears noticed that the results showed she received zero votes at most election precincts.
The secretary of state’s office admitted late last month to making several programing mistakes in the ballot equipment that affected the final tally.
There was an attempted re-scan of the ballots in District 2, but ultimately a hand count was conducted, concluding around midnight on Memorial Day.
Wednesday evening, the results of a hand count were published, which showed that Spears, the last-place candidate, is now in first place and is heading for a June 21 runoff election against Alexander. Former first-place finisher Orson, meanwhile, was pushed down to third place.
Spears managed to gain about 2,600 votes from the original matching count, and Alexander managed to collect a few hundred more as well, according to the Journal-Constitution. But Orson lost some 1,600 votes from the original vote tally.
Georgia has been one of a handful of states experiencing significant election controversies beginning with the 2020 elections.
This is an excerpt from Conservative Brief.
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