TOCCOA, Ga. — If you thought the 2018 election was over two weeks ago, we have some news for you: the last vote count of that election took place Tuesday.
In a year where razor-close elections were commonplace, it was perhaps fitting that the vote count for a house race in northeast Georgia was the last the be counted, and the closest of them all.
It was a recount in a state House race that appears to have been decided by two votes. The Dec. 18 recount ratified that two-vote result, with Chris Erwin declared the winner.
Incumbent state Rep. Dan Gasaway was at the Habersham County Board of Elections, searching for a two-vote miracle. That was the margin separating him from Chris Erwin, the retired school superintendent who appeared to barely prevail in the December special election.
Habersham is one of three counties in House District 28. Stephens and Banks Counties make up the other two.
Gasaway and Erwin are both Republicans. They’d run in a May primary, but officials learned afterward some voters got the wrong ballots for different House seats. A court ordered a do-over of the primary. And from the more than 7,000 votes cast Dec. 4, Erwin prevailed by a grand total of three. Days later provisional ballots changed Erwin’s margin to two – and it stayed that way with this recount, 3521 votes to 3519.
Erwin’s wife Laurie watched the vote count in Habersham County, one of the three rural counties involved in the day’s recount. She called the results good news.
"One vote, two vote is a win," she said. "My biggest goal is I just want to see us move on and go and be able to fix and restore faith."
And though he came up on the short end of the two-vote margin, Gasaway found reason to like what he saw.
"It appears it’s the same thing that we had before," he said. "So that’s a good thing up here, because they’ve had problems in this county, and I’m glad at least they got this consistent."
Gasaway isn’t saying whether he’ll challenge the recount in court. But he has contended that some absentee ballots were counted incorrectly and says he’s talking to a lawyer.