Teasley Wins Historic Hart County BOC Run-off By Two Votes
Frankie Teasley is the new Hart County Commissioner for District 2.
Hart County Elections Superintendent Bob Smith made the announcement after two provisional ballots were counted Wednesday.
“The results are, Garry Hamilton zero, Frankie Teasley two,” said Smith late Wednesday morning.
The two votes broke a tied run-off election on Tuesday.
In what may be a historic event, Tuesday’s run-off election between Teasley and Hamilton, ended with both candidates receiving 348 votes or exactly 50%. District 2 consists of the City of Hartwell, the Reed Creek and Cokesbury communities. Of the 2,899 registered voters in District 2, only 696 or 24% voted in this run-off election.
Those two provisional paper ballots had been called into question by the County Registrar’s office.
During a called meeting of the Board of Registrars Wednesday morning, Registrar John Stercho said the question had to do with which District the two voters were actually in when they voted.
Stercho said in 2012, the county districts were redrawn and one street in the Montvideo community was moved from District 1 to District 2.
However, he said even though the County had moved the two voters in question into District 2 in their records, the Secretary of State’s office was late in doing so.
Once the Board of Registrars approved the two provisional ballots as valid, they were taken to the Elections Superintendent’s office and counted.
After Smith’s announcement, Teasley thanked family and the community for their support.
“It just goes to show that every vote counts and I appreciate everyone going out and voting,” Teasley said Wednesday. “I look forward to serving the citizens of Hart County. I also want to thank Garry Hamilton. I know he worked as hard as I did.”
Teasley will serve the remainder of the late Dan Reyen’s term which ends December 31st. Reyen died suddenly last November.
But the campaigning does not stop with Wednesday’s vote.
Teasley, a Republican, has qualified to run to serve the next full four-year term, which begins January 1, 2015, and will likely be running again against Hamilton as well as two other candidates.
Early voting for that race begins the end of this month.