Audit confirms Tuesday's Marietta City Council election
Dec. 2—MARIETTA — An audit conducted by Cobb County Elections confirmed the original results from Tuesday's Marietta City Council runoff, in which Carlyle Kent defeated Ward 5 incumbent Reggie Copeland.
Wednesday's audit took 43 minutes to complete. There were no changes made to the count.
The audit was not required but rather a way for the department to practice what it will be required to do in the future. New laws in place will require a statewide audit for general elections that take place during even years, according to Elections Director Janine Eveler.
Ballots cast in Tuesday's runoff contained a QR code that were used by the scanners to determine which candidate voters chose. Every QR code that was scanned matched the name of the candidate on their ballot.
County election workers conducted the audit in the main elections office at 736 Whitlock Ave. Eveler used the same rules that would be in place for legally-mandated audits, meaning there was one representative on hand to monitor the counting for each candidate as well as representatives from each political party.
Copeland chose not to send a monitor on his behalf, instead deciding to attend the audit himself.
As he watched election workers tally ballots, Copeland said he accepted the results of Tuesday's election and was appreciative of the opportunity to serve his community.
"I want to thank the beautiful people of Ward 5 for electing me in 2018 and giving me the high honor and privilege to serve. ... I will continue to serve the community in which I live and grew up in," Copeland said.
The monitors who observed the audit said it was performed well.
"I'm really excited to have had the opportunity to come and watch. Audits are a regular part of business," said Cigdem Delano, monitor for the Cobb Republican Party. "I've been audited myself, I've audited other things, and it's just part of the process to make sure that methods and procedures are followed."
Delano was happy with how the audit went, saying that it was "very open and very comfortable." She said those conducting the audit were willing to answer any questions she had and didn't mind her looking over their shoulders.
Roger Strauss, the monitor on behalf of Kent, thanked the elections department for their willingness to share the process with the public.
"As a voter, it's nice to know that when you put that thing in the scanner, that it's actually going to count," said Strauss.
Eveler said each election they are going to try and do a small audit to practice and hone their procedures for when the time comes to do "the big ones."
"If we get into practice and we start having public viewing of the results audit correctly, there will be a lot more confidence in the results," said Eveler.
