Jones County Superior Court received an order last week for the release of copies of absentee ballot information by the elections division of the secretary of state’s office.

The court order was received by Superior Court Clerk Bart Jackson Jan. 7, and the requested documents were copied Friday and turned over to the investigation. Jackson enlisted the services of Jones County Elections Superintendent Marion Hatton in copying the documents.

The requested documents included all absentee ballot oath envelopes, voter’s certificates, numbered lists of all voters, appli cations for official absentee ballots, absentee ballot logs, election sum mary reports, statement of votes cast, and provisional and absentee ballot recap sheets for the Nov. 3 general election and Dec. 1 runoff.

The investigation is the result of complaints filed with the Georgia Board of Elections about alleged irregularities in the election. Rooster Cogburn, one of the two candidates in the runoff for the office of mayor pro tem for the City of Gray, said he filed a complaint Nov. 30, the day before the runoff took place, and his complaint was reportedly not the only one.

Cogburn also filed a peti tion Dec. 8 with Jones County Superior Court to contest the Dec. 1 runoff election. His objection was that five bal lots were not counted by the optical scan machines used to count the votes in the elec­tion. That number was sig nificant because it was the exact number of votes by which he lost the election.

The runoff was between Cogburn and incumbent Loretta Lipsey. The Nov. 3 general election had three candidates for the post, and Lipsey received the most votes but not the majority needed to avoid a runoff.

Cogburn asked for but was denied a recount of the votes as soon as the results were announced, but because the difference in the votes received by the candidates was not one percent or under, a recount was in the discretion of Gray Election Super intendent Jamie Lewandowski.

A hearing about the con tested election was held in Jones County Superior Court with a visiting judge presiding. Chief Judge H. Gibbs Flanders of Dublin denied Cogburn’s petition in a written order following the hearing.

The judge concluded that Cogburn did not present evidence that the optical scan machines used in the election were not in working order and concluded that the five uncounted ballots were blank when ran through the machines. Flanders said a recount was not mandatory and that the court would not interfere with the election superintendent’s decision not to recount.

The evidence gathered in the investigation of the elec tions will be turned over to the state board of elections when complete, and that board will decide what hap pens next.