COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Cobb County Board of Election officials recertified election results from the Kennesaw City Council Special Election on Wednesday.
It’s the third time they have had to recertify the results.
Uncounted ballots found on a memory card changed the results of the election.
Madelyn Orochena was initially declared the winner. But the additional ballots allowed Lynette Burnette to become the new council member.
Orochena requested a recount during a special meeting with Cobb County Board of Election officials last Friday.
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The board approved Orochena’s request for a recount, which was done electronically. Election officials began the process over the weekend and completed it on Tuesday.
The recount changed the results by a few votes but did not change the winner of the race.
“I hope that in asking for the recount that citizens feel at least a little more confident that it was a fair process,” said Orochena.
“As a resident of Kennesaw for over 17 years, I am honored to serve my fellow citizens on the city council. Thank you so much for this opportunity. My pledge is to show strong support for our law enforcement and maintain responsible growth. While the election process was unconventional, I will serve on behalf of all of the people of Kennesaw; not just those who voted for me. I look forward to this role and keeping Kennesaw a great place to work, live and raise a family,” said Burnette, the new Kennesaw City Council member.
There have been several problems in Cobb County this election season.
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In October, more than 100,000 absentee ballots weren’t mailed due to a staff member’s mistake.
Election officials overnighted ballots and some were hand-delivered on election day.
Cobb County Board of Election officials say they are doing all they can to ensure the same problems don’t occur.
“Obviously we don’t the things that happened in the last election to happen again so we are making sure that everybody is trained on that.
We’re having to make sure everyone understands the process we have in place and to shore things up a little bit for the runoff. We have a lot of good procedures.
We have a lot of new people that are trying to learn those procedures. It’s a process to get back into a new building. Everything is a little different here, and we are
doing our best to bring confidence back to the community. There is a lot of work to do for the runoff. It is a very short time frame
to get everything done,” said Janine Eveler, the Cobb County Board of Elections director.
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