Board of Elections decide against a sheriff recount

HIAWASSEE, Ga – In a called meeting on Saturday, August 29, the Towns County Board of Elections and Registration deemed not to move forward with a Towns Sheriff recount.

At the time of Fetch Your News published article about the State Senate District 50 recount, the most recent confirmed information was that a sheriff recount taking place simultaneously as the senate race. FYN learned of the decision not to recall the sheriff race on Monday.

The Board of Elections decided not to move forward with the request to recall the sheriff election based on Georgia law. In O.C.G.A. 21-2-495, it states that the candidate request for a recount must be issued within two days of election certification. Osborn made his request two days prior to Towns certifying its results. Since the request was made before Towns certified the election, the letter was considered void by Georgia law.

The second reason behind denying the recount is that the board of elections couldn’t determine any error in the election process. Also, in O.C.G.A. 21-2-495, it states that if “a discrepancy in the returns recorded for any voting machine or machines or that an error, although not apparent on the face of the returns, exists, the superintendent shall, either of his or her motion or upon the sworn petition of three electors of any precinct, order a recanvass of the votes shown on that particular machine or machines.” The board of elections couldn’t find any argument that would constitute a recount or recanvasing of the vote.

The voter challenges issued in the sheriff’s race are still being investigated, however.

As for the recount of the State Senate District 50, Bo Hatchett picked up two votes with the final tally being in favor of Stacy Hall 1,878 to Hatchett’s 1,684.

Hatchett’s two new votes came from adjudicated ballots, where the machine misread those votes the first time around. Adjudicated ballots are a result of ballots being impaired or unreadable in someway.