Cornelia businessman Trent Davis has asked for a recount in the District 4 Habersham County Commission GOP primary.
Initial balloting showed Davis lost to Demorest attorney Bruce Harkness by eight votes out of the 9,759 votes that were cast in the three-person race. Incumbent commissioner Natalie Crawford placed first with 3,601 votes, Harkness received 3,083 and Davis 3,075.
Since none of the candidates received over 50% of the vote in Tuesday’s primary, the top two vote-getters will move on to the runoff on August 11.
Habersham County Election Supervisor Laurel Ellison told Now Habersham Davis requested the recount. In an interview with Now Habersham, Davis confirmed his request saying he asked for the recount to give his supporters “peace of mind.”
“With it being so close – only eight votes and less than 1% – I just felt that I kind of owe it to those who supported me throughout the journey.”
The former law enforcement officer turned family businessman says he reached out to Harkness and Crawford to let them know he was requesting a recount.
“I let them know how much I appreciate the good, fair, clean campaign and, if the recount works out in my favor, told them I’m hopeful we can all continue the same fair campaign. If not, if it works out in Mr. Harkness’ favor, I wish them both the best of luck,” Davis says.
“…not going to drag this out”
Based on his understanding of what Ellison told him, Davis says the recount could happen as early as the end of next week or possibly as late as June 19. No recounts will occur until election results are certified. “It’s all in the hands of the Secretary of State at the moment on how the recount is going to go and when the recount starts,” he says.
Due to the implementation of the state’s new touchscreen-and-printed-ballot voting system, election officials now have a paper ballot trail they can follow for the first time in 18 years. However, those ballots won’t be recounted by hand. The State Election Board voted in February to conduct recounts of Georgia’s new paper ballots with scanning machines instead of people. A hand recount could still be done on the absentee ballots.
However it’s done and whatever the outcome, Davis says he will stand by the recount.
“I’m not going to drag this out. I’m not getting an election attorney. The people that are involved are still campaigning and they need peace of mind as they’re campaigning.”
“Under the law, Trent is actually entitled to a recount when a race is so close. He is a fine person and I don’t blame him at all for requesting a recount,” Harkness tells Now Habersham. “We all want to make sure every vote by every citizen is properly counted.”
The former Demorest city councilman says he, like Davis, will stand by the recount result saying, “if after a recount and if he beats me even by one vote, then I will honor that and accept it and I will concede and congratulate him.”
Testing the system
With all of the voting problems that occurred in other parts of the state during the June 9 primary, it’s unlikely Davis’ will be the only recount called for in Georgia. Still, it will be a good local test of the state’s new voting system.
“There is a chance that something got missed or overlooked,” Davis says. “There could be a glitch in the system. If there is a flaw in the system, it will rear its head in the recount. If the numbers come out as perfect then, the State of Georgia has a good, fine election system.”
Shifting from recounts to turnout, Davis thanks Habersham County voters for turning out for the primary. Forty-three percent of the county’s voters participated in the election which decided a number of key local races and nominated candidates to run in the fall.
“It shows we’re a county that cares,” Davis says. “I was really proud.”
This article has been updated to include Bruce Harkness’ comments
