Officials Order a Recount in GOP Primary Won by Gingrich
A recount was ordered Monday in the Republican congressional primary that U.S. House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich won by a scant 980 votes.
Gingrich called the recount a waste of time and taxpayers’ money. But Herman Clark, Gingrich’s lone challenger on last week’s primary ballot, said it may not be.
“Anything could happen,” said Clark, a former state legislator who waged a hard-charging campaign against Gingrich, focusing largely on the incumbent’s 22 bad checks at the now-closed House bank and his use of congressional perks.
Max Cleland, Georgia’s secretary of state, ordered election officials in the 6th District in the Atlanta suburbs to begin the recount today. The recount will determine if the arithmetic was correct on election night and will not address allegations of ballot irregularities, said Jeff Lanier, supervisor of elections.
Unofficial returns from the July 21 Republican primary in the 6th District showed Gingrich with 35,682 votes, or 51%, to Clark’s 34,702, or 49%.
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