Gary Richardson has won the Georgia State House District 125 runoff race to finish the term of former Representative Barry Fleming.
Richardson received 3,911 votes (60.18%) total, while CJ Pearson received 2,588 votes (39.82%) in the unofficial results for Columbia and McDuffie counties.
“I would like to thank all of my supporters and I appreciate the confidence they have placed in me,” Richardson said. “I will work hard to serve Columbia and McDuffie counties to the best of my ability.”
In Columbia County, Richardson received a total of 3,469 votes (59.51%), while Pearson received 2,360 votes (40.49%). Out of 36,836 eligible voters in District 125 only, 5,887 votes were cast in Columbia County for a 15.98% voter turnout.
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Tuesday afternoon Columbia County officials called for the Columbia County Board of Elections to do a 100% hand count of the ballots citing an error that some voters had the morning of Election Day. There were some Facebook comments about voters in District 125 in McDuffie County also having issues with the polling pads Tuesday night.
Columbia County Board of Elections Executive Director Nancy Gay said there were issues with the polling pads when they were first turned on and the machine did not recognize the ballot card.
“We activated the emergency ballot process, whether that’s activation codes or actual paper ballots, to get the voters voting,” Gay said. “Then at like 7:20 a.m., 7:30 a.m., I called the state who remedied it and that was it.”
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Gay added that everyone was able to vote on Election Day.
However, the Board of Elections decided against a hand count.
“With all the work we have, we don’t see what purpose it would serve to do a hand recount,” said Board Member Larry Wiggins.
The two men will face off again in the May 21 primary for the next two-year term for the District 125 seat. The winner of the primary will face Democrat Kay Turner in the November election.
Stephanie Hill is the managing editor and covers Columbia County government for The Augusta Press. Reach her at stephanie@theaugustapress.com.
