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Vincent Robert Russo Jr., The Robbins Firm, Atlanta (Photo: Rebecca Breyer)[/caption] Atlanta mayoral candidate Mary Norwood on Tuesday notified state and county election superintendents that she is formally requesting what her lawyer said is a “granular” recount that includes a proposal to hand count every paper ballot cast and a review of every voter certification in the Dec. 5 runoff with opponent and apparent victor Keisha Lance Bottoms. The letter—signed by Norwood and attorney Vincent Russo of the Robbins Firm—follows certification of the runoff results that gave Bottoms a slim 832-vote edge over Norwood, making her the city’s new mayor-elect. The letter was sent Tuesday to Fulton County Elections Superintendent Richard Barron, DeKalb Elections Superintendent Erica Hamilton and Atlanta City Clerk Rhonda Dauphin Johnson. In addition to multiple forms of scrutiny, Norwood and her lawyer have also suggested they have become aware of “several discrepancies” that they say may have resulted in double-voting by some voters. “We are continuing to assess various irregularities we have been made aware of,” Russo said. “After we get the results of the recount, we will determine whether an election challenge is viable.” Robert Highsmith Jr., a partner at Atlanta’s Holland & Knight whom Bottoms has retained to assist with issues associated with the recount, and another Bottoms lawyer, Decatur attorney R. Lawton Jordan III, could not be reached for comment. Bottoms’ campaign headquarters' voice mailbox was full. Norwood’s requested recount is slated to include a recanvass of all votes cast on Fulton and DeKalb County electronic voting machines both on Election Day and during absentee early voting. Her letter also includes a request that every paper ballot cast be recounted by hand rather than optically scanned. Norwood and her lawyers have also asked to review voter certificates filed by each of more than 92,000 voters who cast runoff ballots to determine whether they all submitted the required voter photo identification before casting their ballots. Every voter certificate includes a check box that must be marked by a precinct poll worker identifying the form of identification presented before an eligible voter is given a ballot or card access to an electronic voting machine. “We are definitely looking at people who could be on the voter rolls and voted who are not residents of city of Atlanta for one reason or another,” Russo told the Daily Report. Finally, Norwood’s letter asks county election officials to review and reconsider the justification for accepting or rejecting each provisional ballot cast. According to the letter, Norwood and her lawyers have received information that at least 63 provisional ballots were rejected by Fulton County as “out of county” although some of the voters whose ballots were rejected live inside the Atlanta city limits. Provisional ballots are generally filed by people who may not be registered to vote at the particular precinct where they appear to cast their ballot but are otherwise eligible to vote. Norwood’s letter also contended that “some people voted during both absentee voting and on Election Day, as they are listed in both the absentee voter file and the number list of voters.” The letter also claimed that some voters might not live inside Atlanta’s city limits but voted in the mayoral runoff anyway and that “many voters” have said they requested but were never provided with an absentee ballot. “We are continuing to investigate these and other potential irregularities,” she said. On Tuesday, Garland Favorito, a co-founder of VoterGA, which advocates for more and better ballot security told the Daily Report that, because the state’s electronic voting machines produce no paper ballot, a recanvass is largely limited to taking the card inside in each voting machine and once again uploading the ballot data into an election management systems database which will reread the cards and retotal the votes. “It’s not possible,” Favorito said, to get a different electronic tally from simply rereading the cards “unless you find a card you never loaded.” “No one,” he added, “has ever seen rereading the cards produce different results for the electronic [voting] machines.” But Garland said each voting machine card captures each individual's vote and the time it was cast. Because of that, Garland said, it is possible to review all the individual records on each electronic voting machine card, export them to a spreadsheet and double-check them against the tabulator to make sure the tabulator is tabulating correctly the individual votes. But, he said, “I’m not aware of it being done in a recount in Georgia.”