Recount Numbers in Warner Robins Change; Candidates Stay the Same for Runoff

WARNER ROBINS, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Recount numbers from the Warner Robins election are in and there is a change in mayoral race outcome, but it won’t change the candidates in the runoff election.

Officials and candidate representatives sat in Warner Robins’ city council chambers waiting. Tallying totals themselves to see if there was a difference in Tuesday’s election results.

And there was…..sort of.

Voting totals for mayoral candidate Daron Lee, who finished third in the race, were a little different.

“It was a human error. We should’ve left it all up to the machines,” Elections Superintendent Kathy Cummings said.

She says the total number of votes were correct, but there was an error adding up the total.

“I don’t go by this when I certify. I take all the tapes out, just like we did here today. I take them out, we recount and refigure everything so it would have been caught then,” Cummings said.

Tuesday’s results, showed Lee got 646 votes from absentee ballots and the recount found he had a hundred less votes. That put mayoral candidate Chuck Chalk in third, and Lee in fourth, leaving runoff candidates Randy Toms and Joe Musselwhite still on top.

Lee’s campaign spokesperson Marc Whitfield still isn’t clear with the outcome.

“I want to wait for the certification of the votes and then examine the numbers again for myself,” Whitfield said.

He says if the results stand, he and Lee will have to figure out what happens next.

“There are some concerns about voters not getting the opportunity to vote. A lot of those supporters were Daron Lee supporters,” Whitfield said.

The closest race was council post 4, after former candidate Bob Wilbanks requested a recount.

Tim Thomas won by a single vote, if he lost one vote in the recount, he would’ve had to enter a runoff with Wilbanks.

Results in every other race stayed the same.

Cummings says the election results still have to be certified by the state, and a date has *not been set for early voting for the December 3 runoff elections.