RECOUNT: DeRito Asks for Recount in Alpharetta City Council Election

UPDATE: 7 p.m.., Nov. 9

Alpharetta City Council candidate Doug DeRito has formally asked Fulton County Registration and Elections officials for a recount in the Post 1 election.

With only seven votes separate DeRito and Donald Mitchell in the race, the difference is much less than 1 percent of the total votes. That allows for a recount upon request.

DeRito called Patch this afternoon to confirm that not only did he ask for the recount, he asked for it three times.

In his email requests to Richard L. Barron, the latest director of Registration and Elections for Fulton County, DeRito recounted that his son, a cadet at Virginia Military Institute, made three requests for an absentee ballot. Even after his dad faxed the request on Nov. 1, the deadline for absentee ballot requests, he still has not received an absentee ballot. His father said an elections work confirmed receiving the request and sending out the absentee ballot on Nov. 1.

The recount will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 13, at 10 a.m.

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Donald Mitchell beat Doug DeRito by seven votes in the Alpharetta City Council Post 1 election, according to official reports filed late Friday by Fulton County.

• Mitchell – 1079
• DeRito -- 1072
• Write-In -- 12

Both candidates received nine more votes after 24 provisional ballots were verified. The 12 write-in votes were bigger than victory margin. If the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections certified the election as expected today, Nov. 9, it should be official – if there are no challenges.

Neither candidate had 50 percent of the votes, but in Alpharetta all that is required is for a candidate to receive more votes than any opponent.

Mitchell, the incumbent, had won election two years ago to fill the unexpired term for Post 1. The seat was vacant because then-City Councilman Doug DeRito had resigned to make what turned out to be an unsuccessful bid for Alpharetta mayor.

Mike Kennedy, running unopposed for the Post 2 seat, had 1,766 voters cast their ballots for him, with 49 write-in votes.

Chris Owens, also running unopposed to retain his Post 3 seat, received 1,733 votes, with 49 write-in votes cast.

Only 6.96 percent – or 2,178 -- of the 31,290 registered voters in Alpharetta cast a ballot in the Nov. 5 municipal election, even with weeks of advance voting available.

Check out the summary and full municipal election reports from Fulton County, included as pdf files with this article.