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Update 3/25: Partial hand recounts in Guilford and Rockingham counties produced no changes to either candidate’s vote total.
Update 3/20: On Friday, Berger requested a partial hand recount in the state Senate race.
The initial recount may be over, but the bitterly contested primary showdown between Republican state Senate leader Phil Berger and Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page appears unlikely to end anytime soon.
Machine recounts in Guilford and Rockingham counties confirmed Page’s 23-vote lead, but Berger requested a partial hand recount. On Monday, the NCSBE randomly selected a sample of about 3% of primary day precincts, early voting sites, or both, for the counties to scrutinize. The partial hand recounts produced no changes in either candidate’s vote total.
The Guilford County Board of Elections also voted to consider an election protest Berger filed, with a hearing scheduled for April 6. That means the State Board of Elections won’t certify the election results in late March as planned.
Jason Tyson, a spokesman for the State Board of Elections, told The Assembly that the state must wait for the counties to resolve all protests before it can certify the results, even if the protests wouldn’t change the outcome of the race.
“We won’t certify until the county process plays out,” Tyson said.
If Berger loses his state Senate seat, it will be a huge blow for him and the Republican apparatus in North Carolina.
Berger’s Guilford County protest is a separate process involving eight voters who claim to have received a ballot that was missing the District 26 Senate race. Berger also has filed three protests in Rockingham County over five ballots. The county will consider those protests on Friday, March 27.
While the 13 protested votes wouldn’t change the outcome of the contest, Berger has also raised questions about 222 other ballots where someone apparently either didn’t vote in this race or voted for both candidates. The NCSBE denied Berger’s unusual request for an early hand recount before the counties finished their initial machine recounts. On Friday, he again asked the board to allow a hand count of those 222 ballots or of every vote in the race. The state board will meet on Wednesday, March 25.