After three northeast Georgia election boards certified Tuesday's vote, two votes separated the two House candidates in Georgia House district 29.
Following a special election Tuesday, incumbent Rep. Dan Gasaway (R-Homer) trailed retired superintendent Chris Erwin by three votes in a court-ordered re-run of May's Republican primary. More than 7000 votes were cast in the race Tuesday for a district that covers Banks, Stephens and part of Habersham County.
Friday, the election boards in those three counties certified their elections and counted outstanding provisional ballots. The count in Stephens County added a vote to Gasaway's total, tightening the margin to two votes. No difference emerged in Habersham and Banks.
A court ordered the December primary because election officials gave some voters ballots placing them in incorrect districts. Because no Democrat challenged in the 28th district, the winner of the primary will be seated in the legislature in January.
During Habersham County's election board count, Gasaway contended the board had counted two "illegal" ballot from voters he said didn't live in the residences indicated on county paperwork.
Gasaway will be entitled to a recount because the margin was within one percent. Because Georgia's computer-interface voting machines don't produce paper ballots, no hand recount is possible. As a result, recounts haven't substantially changed elections in Georgia since the system was adopted in 2002.
However, state House elections are rarely decided by two votes.
After the Habersham certification Friday evening, Gasaway said litigation would be a possibility if the recount didn't fall in his favor.
Erwin said he was gratified to have what appeared to be a razor-thin victory.