Richard Lankford at Friday's news conferenceFULTON COUNTY, GA (CBS ATLANTA) -
Former Fulton Sheriff Richard Lankford filed a lawsuit against the election board on Friday, challenging the outcome of the race against incumbent Sheriff Ted Jackson.
Nearly two weeks after voters cast their ballots, the Fulton County Board of Elections declared Jackson the winner.
After the recount, Jackson still came out ahead with the same percentage of the vote as originally tallied.
The race came under fire for a number of problems, including how votes were counted, the accuracy of ballots and the delay in turning the results over to the secretary of state.
Lankford told CBS Atlanta his lawsuit is not about sour grapes, but rather seeking an assurance that every vote in the July 31 county primary was counted, and counted correctly.
"We just need a lot of answers and I think the citizens need a lot of answers so they can have confidence back in their system," Lankford said.
Specifically, the suit points to discrepancies in precinct voting totals, and malfunctioning voting machines.
The legal appeal also questions how many citizens actual voted in the contest and takes aim at Fulton County's method of tabulating votes especially those counted manually.
"Any manual operation between the time the polls closed and Fulton County begins to counting votes is not a tamper proof or error free system," Lankford said.
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