A rural state Legislature district in Georgia may be forced to redo a contentious primary election between two Republicans due to errors within its voter database.
In May, state Rep. Dan Gasaway lost his seat to businessman Chris Erwin by a slim margin of 67 votes. But the day after the election, Gasaway's wife came home from work and said her colleague couldn't find his name on her ballot even though she lives in his district.
Gasaway grew suspicious. He obtained voter data, plotted voters' addresses on maps of his district and concluded that at least 67 voters -- the margin of victory -- either incorrectly received ballots for another district or should not have been allowed to vote in his district's election at all.
"I realized then we had a serious problem," Gasaway told CNN, claiming that mistakes by local election administrators could have cost him the race. Six thousand votes had been cast, and the secretary of state's office, which oversees the state's elections, had certified the results. No Democratic candidates ran for the seat.
