Atlanta mayoral election recount begins Thursday

Election officials plan to recount the votes cast in the Atlanta mayoral election runoff at the request of the trailing candidate.

Mary Norwood on Tuesday requested a recount after the certified results showed her opponent, Keisha Lance Bottoms, winning by a margin of less than 1 percent.

Election officials in Fulton and DeKalb counties, which both include parts of Atlanta, say they plan to conduct a recount Thursday morning.

The two counties on Monday certified the results of the Dec. 5 runoff. Bottoms remained in the lead with 46,667, or 50.45 percent, and Mary Norwood had 45,835 votes, or 49.55 percent. The 832 votes that separate them amounts to less than 1 percent of the 92,502 votes cast.