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AJC: Snellville recount confirms Oberholtzer as mayor
By Jerry | November 8, 2007
Snellville recount confirms Oberholtzer as mayor
By D. AILEEN DODD
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/08/07
A recount of the mayoral race in Snellville on Thursday afternoon confirmed the results posted on election night — incumbent Jerry Oberholtzer was returned to office as mayor.
Oberholtzer, who has been mayor of Snellville since 2003, said he wasn’t worried about the recount of the contest with his challenger, Vice Mayor Bruce Garraway.
“I had not doubts,” Oberholtzer said in a telephone interview. “We were able to beat him. We had a lot of people turn out on election day. We really did a great job.”
A small audience of about 20 people – city and county staff, Atlanta attorneys and Snellville neighbors — watched the recount.
Only 19 votes separated Oberholtzer from Garraway. The vote Tuesday was 1,101 to 1,082. And it was the same during Thursday’s recount.
Garraway had asked for the recount, which lasted nearly three hours.
“There was a dark cloud over this election,” he said. “This was the honorable thing to do in the democratic process.”
Oberholtzer did not attend the recount because the civil engineer was working on an emergency project in Augusta. The incumbent was represented by his attorney, Adam M. Walters of Powell Goldstein of Atlanta.
Garraway watched the action from the front row of the community room at Snellville City Hall as his attorney, Sarah C. Leopold of Holland & Knight, stood toe to toe with Walters eyeing the tallies.
The vote was re-run on an Accu-Vote Optical System.
Onlookers sat quietly listening to the whir of the voting machine, which sounded like an oversized cash register as it spit out numbers on a white stream of paper.
Two officials from the Gwinnett County elections office were on hand in case the city had problems operating the voting machine. The machine jammed at about 3:45 p.m., briefly interrupting the count of early and absentee ballots. Soon after, it began counting the votes cast at the polls on Tuesday.
“This is the builk of the ballots,” explained Snellville City Clerk Sharon Lowery. “There may be some that may have a fold in them. We may have a jam … because of that. We will watch the counter very carefully.”
A ballot with a stray mark jammed the machine again about 45 minutes later, halting the process once more.
City Attorney Thomas Mitchell read a standing order from a Gwinnett County judge appointing two citizens – Harold Jordan and Ruth Green — as members of the voters review panel. The pair was charged with reviewing the stray ballot to determine who the vote was cast for so a duplicate could be made.
“It’s obvious,” said Green after looking over the ballot. “That definitely is blacked in.”
The problem ballot was copied to show votes for Oberholtzer for mayor and Kelly Kautz for city council.
At 5:35 p.m., the voting machine began again. The count was concluded a few minutes later. Walters sent Oberholtzer a message from his Blackberry when the vote count ended. “Jerry won,” he said to supporters.
Garraway and his attorney said the fight wasn’t over. The challenger had complained of possible ethics violations.
Leopold said, “We are going to go over the report and consider our options.”
For some bystanders, watching the recount was a like a civics class.
“This is democracy in action,” said Jim Magill, 76, a retired MARTA bus operator.
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