2 seek recounts of losses in Georgia legislative runoffs

ATLANTA (AP) — Candidates in two Georgia legislative runoffs say they want recounts of their apparent narrow defeats.

Anne Allen Westbrook said Thursday that she will seek a recount of her 20-vote loss to Derek Mallow in the Aug. 11 race for the Democratic nomination in House District 163 in Savannah.

Stacy Hall said earlier this week that he would seek a recount of his 37-vote loss to Bo Hatchett in the contest for the Republican nomination in Senate District 50, which covers all or part of Banks, Franklin, Habersham, Hall, Jackson, Rabun, Stephens and Towns counties in northeast Georgia.

Under Georgia law, a candidate has the right to request a recount when the difference between the two is less than a half percent of all votes cast. Walter Jones, a spokesman for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, said candidates can't make recount requests until the state certifies the Aug. 11 results, which will be sometime next week.

Westbrook tells the Savannah Morning News she has questions about why vote totals changed before Chatham County officials certified the final results. The Democratic nominee faces no declared opposition in the House 163 race, making it likely that the winner of the runoff will win the seat.

Current results show Hatchett with 12,492 votes and Hall with 12,455. In the House race, Mallow has 2,679 votes to Westbrook's 2,659.