Habersham Election Officials Send Out Letters Citing Problems with Voter Districts in May 22 Election

Habersham County election officials are admitting some voters may have cast ballots for the wrong House District race during the May 22nd General Primary Election.

WNEG News has obtained copies of a letter sent out on June 15th by Habersham County Board of Elections Supervisor Laurel Ellison telling them, “You are receiving this letter because your address was found to have been placed in the wrong district due to a past voting precinct redistricting issue.”

Habersham County is divided between State House District 10 and State House District 28.

During the Georgia General Primary Election last month, voters in the District 28 portion of Habersham County were to have decided on the State House race between two Republicans, Incumbent State Representative Dan Gasaway and his challenger, Banks County businessman Chris Erwin.

District wide, Gasaway lost to Erwin by 67 votes and on June 6th filed a lawsuit in Fulton County contesting the results of the race.

In his suit, Gasaway claims that loss was due to what he calls 67 mis-allocated votes, and at least 22 of those voters were denied their right to vote in their district.

“It’s been a long process but we’ve signed under oath that we knew more than 80 citizens that voted Republican in the election got the wrong ballot,” he said.

Gasasway listed over 80 voters who were forced to vote in the wrong District, but says there could be as many as 350.

On Monday, WNEG News contacted Ellison to get the exact number of letters that went out to voters and the number of those voters who had been switched to a different voting District.

In an email to WNEG News Ellison said that because of the ongoing investigation by the Secretary of State’s office and the pending litigation by State Representative Dan Gasaway she is not at liberty to give out that information.

Meantime, the Secretary of State’s office is continuing its investigation into the District 28 issue in Habersham County, according Press Secretary Candice Broce.

Broce would not say when a decision would be announced in that investigation.