No Automatic Recount For SPLOST

Cobb County’s SPLOST election was decided by less than one-fifth of 1 percent of the votes cast, but there won’t be an automatic recount of the results.

Georgia law does not provide for automatic recounts of ballot questions, no matter how narrow the margin, Cobb Elections Director Janine Eveler said Wednesday.

If people were on the ballot, it might be a different story, said Joe Ransbotham, a Powder Springs resident and secretary of the Cobb Board of Elections & Registration.

“That percentage of votes (for an automatic recount) is for an election with people,” he said. “The situation is it’s not a person.”

The four more years of the 1 percent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for transportation, recreation, public safety and related capital projects. A precinct-by-precinct breakdown of the votes is attached to this article.

Based on complete but unofficial results, 42,971 people voted in the election: 21,525 for the SPLOST and 21,446 against—a difference of 79 votes.

Those results included 5,642 votes that were cast early in person and 1,007 mail-in absentee ballots. That means 93 absentee ballots that were requested and mailed out were not returned by Tuesday evening’s deadline.

In addition, voters cast 58 provisional ballots. Registrars, who are county employees, must determine by 5 p.m. on Friday whether to count those ballots. And while they could make the election even closer, they won’t be enough to reverse the result.

That means the next move belongs to the five-member Board of Elections & Registration, which will meet Monday at 8 a.m. at the elections office at 736 Whitlock Ave.

Eveler said the board may order an investigation if it suspects an error or discrepancy in the tally. Otherwise, the board is expected to certify the results as official that day.

Anyone who was eligible to vote Tuesday may contest the election within five days of certification on the basis of at least one of three grounds listed in Title 21, Chapter 2, Article 13 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated:

• “Misconduct, fraud, or irregularity by any primary or election official or officials sufficient to change or place in doubt the result.”
• “When illegal votes have been received or legal votes rejected at the polls sufficient to change or place in doubt the result.”
• “For any error in counting the votes or declaring the result of the primary or election, if such error would change the result.”

A petition contesting the election must be filed with the clerk of Superior Court.

Regardless of Tuesday’s results, Eveler said the election went smoothly. “It was a very successful night for us,” she said.