Representative Dan Gasaway Asks for Recount of Special Primary Result

State Representative Dan Gasaway is not giving up his seat in the State House yet, even though the Secretary of State certified the December 4th Special Primary last Friday, which indicated he lost by two votes.

On Monday afternoon, Gasaway asked for a recount of the votes in all three counties of House District 28.

“We decided to go ahead and ask for the recount.  We will have to have our own personal monitor at each location during the recount,” he said. “I’m hoping it will be at different times otherwise I’ll have to hire poll monitors to watch the procedure.”

In a notice Monday afternoon to all three Election Superintendents in Habersham, Stephens and Banks counties, Interim Secretary of State Robyn Crittendon issued an order to hold the recount today at 1p.

Under the terms of the recount, the Election Supervisors must also manually review by hand, in plain view of the public and designated officials from both candidates, any optical scan ballots in which an overvote is detected for House District 28.

Prior to asking for the recount, WNEG News spoke to Gasaway Monday morning. He said he has been working with his attorneys to determine whether to ask for a recount because he said the law is vague as to when he could move forward with litigation if the recount does not come out in his favor.

“There’s some vagueness in the law as far as if you ask for a recount and the recount comes back the same, your timeline for filing litigation does not change,” he explained. “Only if the recount comes back with a different number does the official date of certification change because they recertify the new recounted number.”

Gasaway said he will wait until the recount is completed before deciding whether to move forward with litigation.

In the Special Primary, with all votes counted, including provisional ballots, Gasaway lost to Republican challenger Chris Erwin by just two votes.

However, Gasaway claims two provisional ballots that were accepted in Habersham County were illegal.

WNEG News will bring you the results of the recount as soon as they become available.