County to hold partial recount
By Kate Lewis    The Augusta Chronicle  November 12, 2005
 

The Augusta-Richmond County Board of Elections on Monday will conduct a recount of votes cast in touch-screen early voting precincts after election officials discovered Friday that 27 absentee ballots were not counted Nov. 8.

The recount could overturn the win of challenger Calvin L. "Coach" Holland Sr., who beat incumbent Bobby Hankerson by only 12 votes for the Augusta Commission's District 5 seat last week.

"There's still a beacon of hope," Mr. Hankerson said. "I have never given up on it."

Mr. Holland was less pleased.

"I was appalled, because it just didn't figure to be something that you would expect to be happening at this particular time when the votes are in the process of being certified and, all of a sudden, 27 votes come up that have not been counted on election night," he said Saturday.

Lynn Bailey, the executive director of the Richmond County Board of Elections, said officials discovered the discrepancy Friday when computer voting records did not match manual reports.

The 27 uncounted ballots originated from touch-screen machines at the Warren Road Recreation Center, the Henry Brigham Recreation Center and the Board of Elections office in the Municipal Building, she said.

Voting via absentee ballot on touch-screen machines began Oct. 17 at the Board of Elections office, and advance voting ran from Oct. 31 to Nov. 4, she said.

None of the uncounted ballots was submitted Election Day, she said.

"The good news is that this has all occurred at a time when the election results are unofficial, because we haven't certified yet," said Mrs. Bailey. "This is the type of thing you look for during the certification and canvassing process. This is exactly why we go through the steps we go through to make sure that everything is correct before we certify it."

Mrs. Bailey said she believes the 27 ballots were not counted because they were inadvertently flagged as "challenged" ballots.

"I'm very, very glad and relieved we were able to find them so that we could count them," she said.

Every candidate on the Nov. 8 ballot was notified of the recount with a hand-delivered notice, she said.

Mrs. Bailey said officials will remove the challenged status from the 27 ballots and recount the ballots at 9 a.m. Monday. The results will be certified, and then officials will honor Mr. Hankerson's request for a recount, she said.