DeKalb County will miss a deadline to certify its election results because, after a hand recount this weekend, county election officials are not confident they have the correct vote tallies.
In one race, they don’t have recount results available at all.
The DeKalb Board of Registration and Elections unanimously decided they could not certify the May 24 election results in their entirety during a special-called meeting Tuesday afternoon. The board members cited the various technical issues that marred the results of a county commission race, prompting a hand recount that took place over Memorial Day Weekend.
During the meeting, Elections Director Keisha Smith said she could not release the results of the recount at this time, fearing it wouldn’t be accurate.
“I cannot provide today an accurate calculation or tabulation of votes (in the DeKalb District 2 commission race),” Smith said. “... I am not confident that what I have today is what I want to present to this board for certification.”
Dele Lowman Smith, the board’s chair, called the situation a “nightmare” and a “perfect storm.” Programming errors made the initial election results of that District 2 commission race inaccurate and also caused problems with a recount that started Saturday. As a result, they had to begin a hand count of votes in 40 precincts.
Keisha Smith, who is overseeing her first election cycle as executive director, said all of the votes had been counted by midnight Monday, but she said the final numbers have yet to be tabulated and finalized. She said several teams of employees were working to enter the numbers into the county’s elections database Tuesday.
“We are continuing to work and keying the totals in our database,” she said. “But we are not anywhere near where we thought we would be or close to where we thought we would be.”
The board will hold a special-called meeting at 5 p.m. Friday, which Keisha Smith said would be enough time for her team to get reliable results. The board faces a potential fine for missing the state’s certification deadline, which was 5 p.m. Tuesday.
“We’re going to miss the deadline,” Nancy Jester, the vice chair of the election board, said. “Whether we miss the deadline by a day or a couple more days, I think that accuracy in this process and confidence in this process is really important for the public to see.”
District 2 commission candidate Michelle Long Spears had asked for a hand count last week, citing apparent problems in the results. Many polling places reported she received no votes on election day, even the precinct where she voted for herself. On Tuesday, she thanked the election board for spending all of the time recounting the votes.
The initial tally showed no candidate had enough votes to avoid a runoff, with Marshall Orson in first place, followed by Lauren Alexander and Spears. But the results could change with the recount.
Credit: special
Credit: special
The Secretary of State’s office attributed the problem to programming changes to voting equipment when a fourth candidate withdrew from the race and was removed from the ballot. In addition, election officials said issues arose with a Republican Party question that did not properly appear during early voting, which required election workers to perform logic and accuracy testing on the machines.
“We’re really still getting information about the cause of the issue, so I can’t speak to (what went wrong) with full confidence,” Keisha Smith said.
Marilyn Marks, executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance, emailed the board Tuesday morning to ask them to delay certifying the election results until the recount’s results had been made public for at least 48 hours.
“No voter could have confidence in the district 2 results if they’ve been paying attention,” Marks said during a Tuesday public meeting. “The processes have not earned voter confidence. Now is the time for a sharp turnaround in your policies to begin to earn the better confidence you claim to desire.”
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