Recount doesn’t significantly alter Atlanta mayoral race

ATLANTA — The recount is over in the close Atlanta mayoral election runoff, and the result remains the same, with Keisha Lance Bottoms appearing to be headed for the mayor’s office. Her opponent is still not conceding, however, saying Thursday that she is still concerned about potential irregularities in the voting.

Mary Norwood requested Thursday’s recount after initial certified vote totals showed her losing the race to Bottoms by 832 votes, a margin of less than 1 percent.

The bitterly contested Dec. 5 runoff campaign between the two city council members was marked by political grudges and allegations of corruption, and less than 20 percent of the city’s roughly 500,000 residents turned out to vote.

If Bottoms’ lead holds through any further challenges by Norwood, she will be Atlanta’s sixth consecutive black mayor since Maynard Jackson was elected in 1973. An upset by Norwood would give the city its first white mayor in more than 40 years and its first-ever white, female mayor.

The totals after the recount show Bottoms with 46,661 votes, or 50.44 percent, and Norwood with 45,840 votes, or 49.56 percent. The 821-vote margin that separates them is still less than 1 percent of the 92,501 total votes cast.

Norwood picked up five votes and Bottoms lost six in Fulton County. The discrepancies came in paper absentee ballots that were submitted by mail.