A judge won’t order a new election in a Georgia state House district despite ballot errors
Georgia state Rep. Mack Jackson, D-Sandersville, looks at a map of proposed state House districts at the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta, Nov. 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy, File)
ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia state House member won’t face a new election after a judge ruled there wasn’t enough evidence to prove voters who received the wrong ballots swayed the race’s outcome.
Senior Judge Gary McCorvey on Monday declined to order a new election in state House District 128, where Democratic incumbent Mack Jackson beat Republican challenger Tracy Wheeler by 48 votes out of a total of 27,804 votes cast in November.
Wheeler sued to force a new election, arguing some people who lived outside the district improperly got ballots for House District 128, while a smaller number of voters living inside the district didn’t receive ballots. Those errors may have stemmed from errors in reassigning voters to the correct districts after redistricting.
McCorvey found that 58 voters got the wrong ballot. That would be enough to change the outcome of the race, depending on how people voted. But the judge found there wasn’t enough testimony indicating whether each person in question voted in the House race, saying Wheeler hadn’t met the high bar for overturning an election.
“Succinctly stated, voters being provided with an opportunity to vote in the wrong district does not equate to proof by a preponderance of evidence that such voters actually tainted the election by voting in the election at issue,” McCorvey wrote.
In its current form, House District 128 covers all of Glascock, Hancock, Warren and Washington counties and parts of McDuffie and Baldwin counties. Most of the voters who got the wrong ballots live in McDuffie County, just west of Augusta.
Jackson said he hoped Monday’s ruling would end the dispute.
“Everybody wants fair elections, and I believe our elections are fair” Jackson said. “And if there’s anything that needs to be worked on, I’m sure we’ll work on it.”
Jake Evans, a lawyer for Wheeler, said she is considering an appeal.
“I firmly believe that all of our local election workers and volunteers acted in good faith and always aim to produce fair and accurate results,” Wheeler said in a statement. “With that said, errors can happen.”
Jackson, returning for a ninth term, is one of the most conservative Democrats in the House. The balance of power in Georgia’s House remains at 100 Republicans and 80 Democrats. At the end of the last term, there were 102 Republicans and 78 Democrats.
A long-running religious freedom case has come full circle, with a court ruling this week that a deeply conservative Amish community in Minnesota cannot be threatened with the loss of homes if its members don’t install septic systems to dispose of their bath, laundry and dish water.