CLARKESVILLE — Habersham County officials admit errors were made that cast into doubt the results of the May 22 Georgia House District 28 Primary Election.
In a written statement issued Tuesday afternoon, Habersham County Commission Chairman provided details of the county’s position.
“The Habersham County Board of Commissioners has directed our county attorney to withdraw the Motion to Dismiss in the lawsuit contesting the May 22, 2018, House District 28 Primary Election,” Anderson’s statement reads.
In that House District 28 race, incumbent Rep. Dan Gasaway was defeated by challenger Chris Erwin by a 67-vote margin.
After hearing from a number of people whose ballot contained the wrong House district, Gasaway filed a lawsuit in Fulton County contesting the results of the election. That challenge is scheduled to be heard in September.
“The parties that were listed in that lawsuit were Secretary of State Brian Kemp in his capacity as secretary of state, Habersham County Elections Supervisor Laurel Ellison, and also Mr. Gasaway’s opponent, Mr. Chris Erwin, who was the other candidate for that seat,” Anderson told AccessWDUN Wednesday afternoon.
“Several things have been going on during the legal proceedings regarding that. Recently, it has come to light through the investigation that there was a number that exceeded the margin of differential in the election,” Anderson said. “The election was a 67-vote victory by Mr. Erwin, however there were more than 67 votes in Habersham County that were provided the wrong ballot one way or the other. Given that information and the fact that the motion was made to release the secretary of state from the lawsuit, Habersham County has moved to remove our request for dismissal based on procedural grounds, and also to further ask the courts to consider a new election for this seat.”
Anderson again acknowledged there were issues related to the ballots assigned to people living near the boundary of House District 28 and House District 10.
“We have never denied that there was an error,” Anderson told AccessWDUN. “The initial information presented to the board of commissioners was that the number of voters was significantly less than the differential in the election. However, in the investigation in cooperation with the secretary of state’s office, it was determined that that number of voters who received incorrect ballots was at least equal to or slightly exceeded the margin in the election. With that scenario, then we want to make sure that the voters of Habersham County have a fair and true opportunity to cast their votes, so we are hopefully going to get that request honored by the courts. We’re also asking for cooperation from Banks County and also from Stephens County.”
Asked when the issue could be resolved, Anderson said that decision rests with the courts. Since one of the motions was to change venue from Fulton County Superior Court to Banks County, there are a lot of unknowns at this time.
“The Board of Commissioners’ major concern in this whole process has been a fair, accurate and true election in Habersham County for our voters,” Anderson told AccessWDUN. “We hope this is resolved quickly and that we can proceed. All corrections have been made to the property owners that live along the district boundaries, and we look forward to getting this matter resolved and letting everyone have their say as they should.”
House District 28 covers parts of Habersham, Banks and Stephens counties.
