State Board to Select Precincts at Random for Partial Hand Recount in Senate District 26 Contest

The State Board of Elections has received a request for a hand recount in a random sample of precincts in the Republican primary election for N.C. Senate District 26, which includes all of Rockingham County and part of Guilford County.

After the initial machine recount, Sam Page leads Phil Berger by 23 votes, 13,135 to 13,112. State law [N.C.G.S. § 163-182.7A(a)] permits a candidate to request a sample hand-to-eye recount within 24 hours after the initial recount. Berger requested the recount on Friday.

State law also requires that the sample must be all ballots in 3% of the precincts in that district in each county, rounded up to the next whole number of precincts. Early voting sites in the county are also included. Guilford County had 34 Election Day precincts in the Senate district, and 10 early voting sites. Rockingham had 14 precincts in the district and four early voting sites. Therefore, the sample will include two Guilford County ballot groupings and one Rockingham County grouping.

If the results of the sample recount change enough from the results of the machine recount, then a full hand-to-eye recount could be ordered. This would be required by law if the results in the three voting sites together change enough to where that same amount of change, if applied to all ballots cast in the election for the contest, would result in a different winner.

The State Board will conduct a random drawing at 10 a.m. Monday, March 23, to determine the Election Day precincts or early voting sites that will be recounted by hand in Guilford and Rockingham counties. The random drawing will follow the same steps as the random drawing that is done after each Election Day, to determine which voting groups will be recounted for the sample hand-eye audit.

Members of the public can observe the random selection in person at the State Board of Elections Office, Third Floor, Dobbs Building, 430 N. Salisbury St., Raleigh, NC 27603.

The event can also be observed remotely as follows:

• Online: Webex (Password: NCSBE)
• By phone: Dial (415) 655-0003, enter access code 2435 336 4850#, password 62723#

The county boards of elections in Guilford and Rockingham counties are both expected to begin their partial hand recounts Tuesday morning. The Guilford County meeting will begin at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in Room L12 of the Guilford County Courthouse, 201 S. Eugene St., Greensboro, N.C. The Rockingham County meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Rockingham County Board of Elections Office, 240 Cherokee Camp Road, Reidsville, N.C.

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