Incumbent District Attorney Bill McBroom has been granted a recount by Secretary

of State Cathy Cox after he lost by 142 votes to Fayette attorney Scott Ballard

in last week's election.

The recount, which begins today at 10 a.m., will involve all four counties

in the Griffin Judicial Circuit, which includes Fayette, Spalding, Pike and

Upson counties.

McBroom told The Citizen late last week that he wanted the recount because

of all the hard work his volunteers did for him during the campaign. Ballard

said he would have done the same thing had their roles been reversed.

Cox has also agreed to allow a statewide recount in the Court of Appeals

race for the seat being vacated by retiring Judge Frank Eldridge. That race

will be headed to a runoff between the first and second place finishers,

but it's the second place candidate in question as third place finisher

Howard Mead got 348 votes less than second place candidate Mike Sheffield.

That put the difference between Sheffield and Mead as well within the 1

percent margin to allow a recount for a third-place finisher in a runoff,

said state elections officials. Each candidate received over 207,000 votes

statewide.