Senate President Phil Berger files recount in Senate District 26 race

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Senate President Phil Berger has requested a machine recount of the results from his primary race in Senate District 26, which covers Rockingham and Guilford counties.

Just before the 5 p.m. deadline, Berger filed four protests with the North Carolina State Board of Elections, though the exact nature of the complaints has not been publicly posted at this time.

In a statement, Berger Recount Spokesman Jonathan Felts wrote:

"The math on this is the 233 potentially impacted voters is over 10 times the current vote difference of only 23 votes and could, obviously, impact the election results. Close election results like this are why the review and recount process allows for a careful review to ensure all legal votes are counted."

Berger faced a noon deadline to request a recount. The Guilford County Board of Elections started their machine recount Tuesday afternoon and expects to conclude Wednesday. The Rockingham County Board of Elections will conduct its recount Thursday morning.

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"We have our full-time staff members at each of our high-speed tabulators operating them, but we also have then bipartisan teams supervising and helping each one of those. We'll just have them come on back tomorrow, we're going to seal everything up, close everything down, lock it all up and then can hit the ground running hopefully tomorrow," said Charlie Collicutt, Elections Director with the Guilford County Board of Elections.

Berger trails Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page by 23 votes. There was no change to the margin following the County Canvass on Friday in Rockingham and Guilford counties, respectively.

Page traveled to Greensboro on Tuesday, where he sat in for part of the County Board of Elections meeting.

"There was a movie called 'A Few Good Men,' and it was statement made by Jack Nicholson, the Colonel. Phil can't handle the truth. The truth is the people have spoken and they've said who they want as our next senator representing Guilford, Rockingham County, and that's Sheriff Sam Page," said Page.

Berger was first elected to the North Carolina Senate in 2000 and has served as its President since 2011. Page was elected Sheriff of Rockingham County in 1998 and has held the position since then.