Kennesaw City Council Seat Flipped After More Than 700 Votes Found

KENNESAW, GA — More than 780 ballots found on a memory card has changed the result of the Special City Council Post 1 seat in Kennesaw.

It was confirmed at the Cobb County Board of Commissioners special called meeting Friday that Lynette Burchett, not Madelyn Orochena, is the election's projected winner.

According to the Secretary of State's office, Burchett had 1,756 votes while Orochena had 1,725 votes against opponents Jason Acree, David Blinkhorn, Jon Fred Bothers, Daniel Bowie and Anthony Gutierrez.

During the meeting, county officials said 789 votes from the Nov. 8 general election were found on a recovered Kennesaw 3A precinct memory card. Someone failed to properly upload the votes into the elections system. Officials said the failure was "human error."

The original ballots were certified Tuesday, and Orochena announced her official win Wednesday on Facebook.

Orochena said she was notified of the memory card mishap around 4 p.m. Wednesday and was told by elections officials that as they were preparing for Georgia's risk-limiting audit, officials learned ballot images had been uploaded and not ballot results. Officials confirmed these details at the meeting.

The votes were recertified during Friday's commissioners meeting, and officials orderd a recount at Orochena's request.

Orochena told the board Friday that an apology is not enough. She announced plans to file a complaint with the SOS office and speak with legal counsel.

No other candidates in the Kennesaw race appeared at the meeting.

County officials said they would keep elections officials updated on the recount process, with efforts to have it completed by the state's post-certification process Monday.