Primary election recanvasses set for Thursday

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WTVQ) – Several county boards of elections will meet Thursday morning to recanvass the results of races on the May 22 Primary ballot, Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes announced Tuesday.

Grimes’ office received written requests for recanvasses in three races. County boards of elections will convene at 9 a.m. on May 31 to recheck and recanvass the voting machines, per Kentucky law.

The Jefferson County Board of Elections will recanvass the results of the 43rd House District Republican Primary and for the nonpartisan Primary for District Judge, 30th Judicial District, 9th Division.

Unofficial totals show nine votes separate Everett C. Corley and Denise L. Raine in the Republican Primary for the seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives. Raine requested the recanvass.  

Karen Faulkner, the third-place candidate in the 30th District, 9th Division judicial race, requested a recanvass of the race as unofficial results show a 17-vote margin between her and the second-place candidate, Tanisha Ann Hickerson.

Several counties in Eastern Kentucky will recanvass the results of the nonpartisan primary for Judge of the Court of Appeals in the 7th District, 2nd Division. The third-place candidate, Gene Smallwood, Jr., requested the recanvass. More than 1,200 votes separate Smallwood and second-place candidate Larry E. Thompson.

The purpose of a recanvass is to verify the accuracy of the vote totals reported from the voting machines. 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.

The last major Kentucky election recanvass took place in 2016 in the Democratic presidential preference primary at the request of Bernie Sanders. The margin was fewer than 2,000 votes and the recanvass did not change the outcome of the election.

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Media Release from the Office of the Secretary of State