NEWS RELEASE
FRANKFORT, Ky. (Nov. 15, 2016) – Recanvasses of vote totals will be conducted in three races for seats in Kentucky’s House of Representatives, Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes announced. The deadline for candidates to request a recanvass in any race in last week’s general election was 4 p.m. Tuesday.
“We have notified all the county boards of elections which will be conducting the recanvasses, and we are reminding them of the laws and procedures to be followed,” said Grimes. “As always, we will be of assistance to the county boards of elections in any way we can during this process.”
Grimes received written requests for a recanvass from the following candidates:
Republican Denver “Denny” Butler in the 38th House District. Democrat McKenzie Cantrell leads Butler by 259 votes.
Democrat Linda Belcher in the 49th House District. Current totals show Republican Dan Johnson received 156 more votes than Belcher.
Republican Chad Shannon, 87th House District, who trails Democrat Rick Nelson by a 420-vote margin.
The purpose of a recanvass is to verify the accuracy of the vote totals reported from the voting machines. County boards of elections will convene at 9 a.m. Thursday to recheck and recanvass the voting machines, per Kentucky law. The boards will notify the candidates of the location of the recanvass. Immediately upon completion of the recanvass, the boards will file their recanvass reports with the Secretary of State.
Each candidate and both political parties may have a representative present at the recanvass, and the county board of elections shall authorize media to observe.
No recanvasses were requested in statewide races. The last statewide recanvass was conducted in May’s Democratic presidential primary at the request of Sen. Bernie Sanders. The results or outcome of the election did not change.
Grimes has presided over eight recanvasses as Secretary of State.