House District 125 Candidate CJ Pearson and supporters questioning why there won’t be a vote re-count

COLUMBIA COUNTY, Ga. (WJBF) – House District 125 Representative candidate CJ Pearson and some voters are questioning why the county’s board of elections is declining to do a hand re-count of Tuesday’s runoff election votes.

Gary Richardson has been declared the winner of that race – with a little more than 60% of the vote.

But on election day, county commissioners requested the re-count because of early morning software issues at all of the precincts in the district.

Columbia County’s Elections Director Nancy Gay said the re-count isn’t needed because there were only 40 emergency ballots and all 5,800 votes were counted. She also said it would cost anywhere from $5,000-$10,000 to do the hand re-count.

Gary Richardson said he would support the re-count to help ease voters’ minds, but he would be okay with the board’s decision either way.

“Since I’ve been involved in politics, I’ve always heard questions about just about every election that’s come down the pipe,” he said. “But, however and whatever we can do to remove doubts, I think we need to do it.”

CJ Pearson, who lost to Richardson by 20%, said it’s odd that election officials would refuse the request and not want to clear up speculations.

“I think it’s important that this re-count happens,” Pearson said. “The board of commissioners came together and said that this needed to occur, and for the board of elections to disregard that completely, I think it’s unsettling.”

He even mentioned using his campaign to pay for the recount.

“From what we’ve heard from voters and people throughout our community, this is a step that they want to see,” he said. “If it came to a point where I would – the campaign would have to pay for that recount, we would be happy to do that.”

His supporters agree with his stance.

“We need to give confidence back to the people that our votes are counted,” Ashley Lee said. “When there’s so many anomalies that happen, it’s just off. Something’s off about it, why is that? Why are there so many questions and they can’t restore our confidence?”

So far, the board has not changed its decision. Election results are still set to be certified by 6 p.m. Friday.

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