Senate leader Berger signals machine recount request coming in primary election
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- State Board will certify March 25; Berger’s team is evaluating recount, election protest.
- Page leads by 23 votes, a margin within 1% making a recount eligible if requested.
- Berger’s campaign says it anticipates requesting a machine recount, decision pending.
Longtime Senate leader Phil Berger hasn’t made a final decision on calling for a recount in his tight race against Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page.
But he already has a “recount spokesman” who says the campaign anticipates “we will, at a minimum, request a machine recount” by Tuesday’s deadline — while adding “no decision has been made yet.”
“Our legal team is monitoring and evaluating this situation as election officials continue to adjudicate this process,” said Berger recount spokesperson Jonathan Felts in an emailed release.
Berger could also file an election protest — that deadline is 5 p.m. Tuesday, Felts noted. An election protest is a complaint about misconduct that a candidate argues could have affected the election’s outcome, The News & Observer previously reported.
Page has 23 more votes than Berger, after the boards of election for both Rockingham and Guilford counties in Senate District 26 made election results official on Friday. The State Board of Elections will certify the election on March 25, which is also the deadline to finish recounts.
Berger and Page are both very well known in Rockingham County. Berger, 73, has been in office since 2000, and Page, 69, since 1998. Berger even has a street named after him in Eden: Phil Berger Avenue.
Berger has amassed significant power at the General Assembly, and as Senate president pro tempore, is one of the three most powerful politicians in the state. The others are the House speaker and governor. Chosen by the Republican caucus, which controls the Senate, Berger has the final say on any legislation coming to the floor for a vote.
Both men were reelected multiple times by Republicans in the district, but Page is more popular in their home county and received twice as many votes as Berger. His term as sheriff ends later this year.
Berger fared better in Guilford County, where he received twice as many votes as Page.
The total vote count is 13,136 votes for Page, which is 50.04%. Berger’s vote total is 13,113, which is 49.96%. That’s within the 1% required for a recount.
State law says that the mandatory recount only happens once the losing candidate requests it, with a noon March 17 deadline to notify the State Board of Elections.
