Tucked in a jagged corner on the Georgia House map, Donna Harris and her neighbors voted last month for the candidates they thought could be their next representative.
It now appears they cast ballots in the wrong state House district in rural east Georgia, throwing the 48-vote outcome into doubt and jeopardizing a longtime Democrat’s reelection. The race was the closest House race in Georgia, with a 0.2 percentage point margin out of nearly 28,000 votes cast.
About 60 people likely voted in the incorrect district, according to mapping by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The apparent errors occurred after redistricting in 2021 in McDuffie County, where these voters were assigned to the wrong side of political borders running along roads and highways.
Incumbent state Rep. Mack Jackson, D-Sandersville, was the announced winner of the election, edging out Republican Tracy Wheeler, a businessperson from Sparta. But a judge could soon decide whether to order a new election.
“I didn’t know I was in the wrong district. It’s kind of crazy,” said Harris, who lives near the town of Dearing, population 537.
An election redo would give Wheeler another chance to earn a seat at the Georgia Capitol and build on Republicans’ 100-80 majority in the state House.
After Wheeler went to court to challenge the outcome of the election, the AJC sought to verify her allegations of ineligible voters.
Using voter registration lists, turnout records and mapping software, the AJC identified voters who were assigned to House District 128 but actually live just outside the district, in House District 125, where Republican Rep. Gary Richardson won reelection by a wide margin.
The voters live near the border between the two districts, often just across the street from the boundary. Under state law, a judge can order a new election when the number of ineligible voters is high enough to put the outcome in doubt.
Wheeler said districting mistakes must be corrected and voters should be allowed to recast their ballots.
“I am fighting to ensure the voters of House District 128 have a fair election where only legal votes are counted and all eligible voters have an opportunity to cast a ballot,” Wheeler said.
Jackson, who was first elected to the House in 2008, didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.
Using mapping software to identify potential districting problems, state election officials informed county election offices before the election to try to avoid these kinds of errors, said Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer for the secretary of state’s office.
Out of roughly 90 voters flagged for review by McDuffie County, none of their registrations were changed to different districts earlier this year, Sterling said. County officials are responsible for verifying the accuracy of voter registration information and districts.
“Some of these are going to be voters who should have been on one side of the road, and they put both sides of the road into one district,” Sterling said.
McDuffie County Elections Director Phyllis Brooks didn’t return phone and email messages seeking comment.
In the other five counties that cover parts of House District 128, the AJC’s review of district maps and voters didn’t find similar districting errors as in McDuffie. The AJC found two voters in Warren County who may be located in the incorrect district, but Chief Registrar Kathy Holcomb said all the county’s voters were assigned to the accurate districts.
Wheeler’s attorney, Jake Evans, said he’s confident in their case after winning similar election challenges in the past.
In August, a judge threw out a South Georgia school board race decided by just two votes because election officials in Tift County assigned voters in an apartment complex to the wrong district.
And in 2018 and 2019, a state House election had to be redone twice because of repeated mistakes that placed dozens of Habersham County voters in the incorrect district.
This time, the errors appear to have occurred when political lines moved to the east after redistricting in 2021, splitting McDuffie County between two House districts to a greater degree than under the previous maps. The voters who appear to be incorrectly districted live along that border.
House District 128 includes 43,500 registered voters, stretching from outside Milledgeville to Sandersville and Thomson.
This article has been updated to clarify that a judge can order a new election if the number of ineligible voters is high enough to put the outcome in doubt.
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