The race for the next Representative for Georgia’s 7th District remains too close to call. As of Thursday, Woodall and Bourdeaux are only separated by 40 votes.
Republican Bob Woodall has claimed 50.10 percent of the vote and Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux has 49.90 percent of the vote, amounting to less than 1 percent of a difference between the two candidates.
The 7th District covers Forsyth and Gwinnett Counties.
Because the race is so close, there is still no official winner.
Bourdeaux filed an emergency motion asking Gwinnett County to previously recount rejected absentee ballots. She claims that Gwinnett County rejected nearly 1 in 10 absentee ballots, more than any other county in Georgia – and that nearly 900 absentee ballots were thrown out in Gwinnett County’s 7th District.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Leigh May ordered Gwinnett County elections officials to count all absentee ballots that had previously been missing, or had been incorrectly placed. This ruling also stopped Gwinnett County officials from certifying election results until those ballots were counted.
Georgia law allows candidates to request a recount if a candidate leads by less than 1 percentage point after election results are finalized.
Gwinnett County has said it won’t certify its votes until the recount is done, by Thursday at the earliest.
