It took seven years and a lawsuit but Habersham County voters are now finally where they belong, according to officials. Commission chair Victor Anderson says the elections office has completed “an independent third party verification” that voters have been assigned to their proper legislative districts.
Habersham County Elections Supervisor Laurel Ellison worked with the Legislative & Congressional Reapportionment Office of the Georgia General Assembly to verify voter assignments.
The Habersham County Board of Commissioners ordered the audit to instill voter confidence ahead of the Nov. 6 General Election.
Earlier this year it was discovered 402 voters were assigned to the wrong state legislative districts. Some of them had been in wrong district since 2011 when the House redrew district lines after reapportionment.
To correct the errors, election officials “compared and validated” voter assignment data files from the Habersham County Elections Office and GIS Mapping System and data files from the Legislative & Congressional Reapportionment Office.
“After checking, and geographically identifying, each address in the State Reapportionment Office, Laurel Ellison has verified that all Habersham County voters’ addresses are in the proper House district and that no errors were found in the maps when conducting this latest verification effort,” says Anderson. “This has been a reassuring exercise and it has allowed all voter files to be cross checked with state voter files from the Legislative & Congressional Reapportionment Office.”
Due to the districting errors, Rep. Dan Gasaway filed a lawsuit challenging his 67-vote loss in the May 22 GOP primary. His attorneys presented evidence in court that 74 voters cast illegal ballots. On Sept. 19, Senior Judge David Sweat threw out the results and ordered a second House District 28 primary election on Dec. 4.
The election audit was conducted after a request by House District 10 State Rep. Terry Rogers.
