Sen. Berger requests hand recount as he continues to trail Page in NC GOP primary
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- State Senate Leader Phil Berger has requested a hand recount as he continues to trail Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page in their Republican primary election.
On Friday afternoon, Berger's spokesperson released a statement arguing that previous recounts were treated differently in Guilford and Rockingham counties.
"During the machine recount process, two voters in Guilford County (one for Page and one for Berger) whose votes had previously been counted were disenfranchised because their votes were deemed undervotes when scanned by a different counting machine," said Jonathan Felts, Berger's Recount Spokesman. "Despite the voters' intent being easy to determine and very clear, so clearly readable that the votes had been counted on Election Night, Guilford officials would not include the two votes in their results."
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Felts added: "Yesterday, there were similar situations during the Rockingham County machine recount with voters' ballots that had been so clearly readable as to be counted on Election Night, now being deemed unreadable by a different counting machine. One ballot, supporting Berger, had a bubble clearly filled in, but it was not dark enough. Another ballot, supporting Page, had only a checkmark rather than being fully filled in. Rather than rejecting the ballots and disenfranchising the voters, a Rockingham elections official showed the ballots to both Page and Berger lawyers, indicated that voter intent was very clear, and then darkened the bubbles to avoid disenfranchising the voters.
"So, two different counties now seem to be using two different sets of rules for undervotes and other unreadable ballots. That's not fair to the voters of SD-26. And that's why Sen. Berger continues to urge the NCSBE to conduct a hand inspection for the 220 undervotes and overvotes.
"There are 222 voters who voted in SD-26 who have never had their voice heard or vote counted in this election. That's 199 more voters than the current margin of this race and could obviously impact the results if their votes are not suppressed," Felts noted.
The Page campaign responded to the request for a hand recount.
"Phil Berger is once again asking for special treatment and trying to change the rules after he lost," said Patrick Sebastian, Post-Election Advisor to Page. "North Carolina law is clear - and it applies to everyone. Sen. Berger doesn't get to rewrite it because he doesn't like the outcome."
- ABC11's Michael Perchick contributed.
