Election officials say they followed the law when it came to handling the Ward II City Commission election and the disqualified candidate
Election officials say a notice was sent to absentee voters and displayed at precincts that Calhoun was no longer a Ward II candidate
/ Sarah Bleau
ALBANY, GA -- Supporters of Melissa Strother say they plan to contest the Ward II City Commissioner election results, saying nearly 250 votes for disqualified candidate Cheryl Calhoun swayed the results.
The Voter Registration and Elections Office says they followed the law.
They say based on "Code Section 21-2-134," votes for any candidate that is removed from the race are not counted and that the name may be removed from the ballot.
Election officials say early and absentee voting already began when Calhoun withdrew, so they did not remove her name from the ballots.
“We couldn't very well say 'Okay, today we stop, and today we clear these off, and we're going to tell all those people who've come up in the office that they can come back and vote again.' That's against the law,” says Elections Supervisor Ginger Nickerson.
Election officials say, as the law states, they did post signs at each precinct and sent notices with absentee ballots saying Calhoun withdrew.
Unofficial final election results show Ivey Hines winning the Ward II race with 51.45 percent of the vote and Strother trailing with 47.46 percent of the vote. Just over one percent were write-in votes. Election results will be official on Tuesday, Nov. 15.
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