Incumbent Mike Snow, D-Chickamauga, clinched 73 more votes than rival Jay Neal in Tuesday’s rematch to retain his state House District 1 seat.

Neal, R-LaFayette, bested Snow by nearly 200 votes in the Nov. 5 general election, but failed to unseat him in Tuesday’s rematch. A Whitfield County judge ordered the reelection after ruling the Nov. 5 results invalid.

In Tuesday’s reelection, Snow captured 3,980 votes, or 50.5 percent of votes cast. Neal received 3,907 votes. These results are unofficial until the Walker County Elections and Registration office verifies uncounted provisional ballots, which the office is expected to complete within 48 hours after the election, according to Walker Elections Superintendent Barbara Berry.

Berry’s office said 23,188 registered voters reside in District 1, and 7,887 of those, or 34 percent, cast ballots in the Tuesday election. These figures also do not include the provisional ballots.

According to results certified by the Georgia Secretary of State's office, evidence indicates “at least 200 ballots, and probably substantially more, were irregularly cast,” Senior Judge Coy Temples said in his reelection order filed Dec. 20 in the Walker County Courthouse.

In November, Snow, who has served 17 years in the state House, filed a petition charging about 1,800 registered Rossville voters were assigned to state House District 1 when they should have been assigned to District 2; meanwhile, about 1,100 Rossville voters should have been assigned to District 1, Snow's district, but were assigned to District 2.

According to the Nov. 5 general election results certified by the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, Neal defeated his opponent with 197 votes. Neal captured 4,850 votes, or 51 percent, in that race to Snow's 4,655