Henry Daily Herald

Board of Commissioners incumbent candidate Warren Emory Holder requested the recount to which he is entitled because the margin in his election was less than 1 percent.

McDONOUGH — An election recount is scheduled for Monday in the Henry County Board of Commissioner (BOC) District I balloting, according to Janet Shellnutt, Henry County’s Elections and Registration Director.

“It is within one percent,” said Shellnutt. “We got a request from Mr. Holder. We will start running the absentees ballots at 2 p.m., and hopefully have result by 3 p.m., on Monday.”

“Anything is possible until the election is certified,” said Holder. “I’m not conceding at this point until the final votes are counted, because with 15 votes out of approximately 3,800 votes, the percentage of difference is extremely low.”

Just as Holder would not concede, Moss would not declare victory — though he did hold a victory party with 50 supporters Tuesday night at the Moose Lodge in McDonough.

“I haven’t won yet,” said Moss. “The military votes have not been counted. They are supposed to do that on Friday.”

Shellnutt stressed that her office only will recount the precincts within District I. “Officially, you cannot hold a recount until an election has been certified.”

For now, unofficial and incomplete returns have businessman William J. “Bo” Moss defeating long-time incumbent District I Commissioner Warren Emory Holder. Moss received 50.2 percent of the vote, or 1,898 votes, while Holder secured 49.8 percent, or 1,883 votes.

Holder has been an elected official in Henry County since 1971. He served on the Locust Grove City Council and Henry County School Board prior to becoming a commissioner in January 1997.

“Obviously, on that day, a majority of people who cast ballots lost confidence in my ability to make decisions for them,” said Holder.

Shellnutt said her office will send the results to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.

“Unofficially, there is a 15-vote difference between ‘Bo’ Moss and Warren Holder for the District I Commissioner seat,” said election clerk Brook Schreiner. “Our office is still waiting on military absentees; they have until Friday at 3 p.m. to get their absentee votes to us. After 3 p.m., we will certify the election.”

Schreiner said although the Henry election office has completed the count for provisional ballots, the number of votes for Moss and Holder remains the same as election night.

“As of [Wednesday], we had not received any military votes in the mail,” said Shellnutt. “There will be an official and complete report on Friday, when will do a final count after the mail runs.”

Moss said he based his campaign platform on economic development, road infrastructure, government transparency and advocate for solutions to our traffic problems we have in the county.

“I would like to work with the board to bring in good corporate and manufacturing jobs to the county, to help stabilize our revenue,” said Moss, who acknowledged he voted against Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.

“I voted against T-SPLOST because I just don’t think the plan they were offering would benefit Henry County,” he explained.

At the victory party, Moss expressed his gratitude.

“I thanked them and told them,” said Moss. “I told them how I appreciate all of the hard work they did. We had a celebration and a nice dinner.”

Moss said the dinner conversation was about how hard he and his campaign staff worked to run a professional campaign.

“We did a lot of grass-roots campaigning,” said Moss. “I think we won because we got out and met citizens and talked with them about issues they were concerned with in the county.”