Mary Norwood was in the audience when members of the Fulton County elections board voted to certify the results of Tuesday’s runoff. Including newly-counted provisional ballots, the final vote total expanded Keisha Lance Bottoms’ lead over Norwood by more than 800 votes.
"I have the authority and ability to ask for a recount. Again, with such a close election it is absolutely imperative that we take a look at every single ballot," she told 11Alive's Doug Richards.
If she formally request it, the Fulton County recount would likely be done by Friday. For the most part, it would require Fulton County to simply reload its electronic voting cards and have computers tally the votes again.
Norwood said her legal team will be looking into the vote count.
"We will be preparing an analysis of what the vote count is as soon as we look at it. and we will be very thoughtful," she said.
"I had 46,000 votes in this city and it is important that every one of those voters who voted for Mary Norwood have my best investigation."
She has received criticism by Bottoms supporters for her intention to request a recount but said the vote count was too close not to. Norwood said her supporters deserve her best effort.
"With such a close election, it is absolutely imperative that we take a look at every single ballot – absentee, mail in, provisionals – it is absolutely imperative for all of the people that voted for Mary Norwood to be their mayor."
"We want to ask for a recount, not a re-canvass. We want to know, review every single vote. We want to review every single issue. I think that is exactly what we need to review for the citizens of Atlanta," she said.
Norwood also asked voters who experienced voting problems to come forward. To that, Mayor-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms' lawyer Robert Highsmith said, "Well there’s just no evidence of anything like that. We’ve heard no evidence of poll workers didn’t do their jobs in Dekalb or Fulton. In fact, we commend the boards of registration and election in both Dekalb and Fulton counties of running a very tight error-free election process."
Bottoms has already moved into a transition office in City Hall. She sat down with 11Alive's Doug Richards to talk about what her life have been like since claiming victory on election night. She has more than 800 unread text messages. Read the full transcript, here.
