Senate leader Phil Berger requests recount in Republican primary
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Berger formally requested a recount after certified results show him trailing by 23 votes.
- Recount must be completed and results certified by the State Board on March 25.
- Campaigns can file election protests by 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 17.
If the official, county-certified election results hold, powerful North Carolina Senate leader Phil Berger will lose his Republican primary election to Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page. But the margin is small, and a recount will soon be underway.
Berger has formally asked for a recount — according to State Board of Elections spokesperson Jason Tyson — of the election results that show Berger losing by 23 votes after Rockingham and Guilford counties’ boards of elections certified results on Friday. The recount must be completed by March 25, when the State Board of Elections certifies results.
A Berger campaign spokesman said Friday he anticipated the campaign asking for at least a machine recount, and did on Tuesday.
“Today, Sen. Berger contacted the N.C. State Board of Elections and formally requested a machine recount of the votes in SD-26. We will have no further statement today regarding the potential for requesting a hand recount,” Jonathan Felts said in a statement.
Machine, hand counting requests from Berger
But in Berger’s letter to the Board of Elections requesting the recount, he wrote that if the machine recounting identifies overvotes or undervotes, he requests those votes be counted by hand by a bipartisan team of four people.
An overvote means that a voter cast too many votes on their ballot, according to Ballotpedia, which results in a “spoiled” vote. For example, if a voter chose both Berger and Page, the ballot for that race would not be counted because they should have voted for only one candidate.
An undervote means that a voter did not vote for a candidate, which is allowed, and the ballot will not be disqualified.
In Berger’s letter, he wrote that records show there was one overvote and 134 undervotes in Rockingham County, as well as two overvotes and 83 undervotes in Guilford County.
A recount is mandatory if the losing candidate requests it and is within 1% of total votes of the winning candidate.
‘We won this election’ Page says
Page said in a statement Tuesday the campaign is confident results will maintain him as the winner.
“We won this election because the voters of Guilford and Rockingham counties made their decision clear. Phil Berger has the right to request a recount, and I’m confident it will confirm the outcome. We won,” Page said.
There could be more left to sort out in the primary than just a recount, if Berger or Page’s campaigns file election protests by 5 p.m. Tuesday. That’s the deadline to complain about misconduct that a candidate argues could have affected the outcome of an election.
A Page spokesperson said Monday they were considering a protest, and on Tuesday Felts said the Berger campaign will announce any protests later on Tuesday if they file one. No protests had been filed to the Board of Elections as of 11:45 a.m. Tuesday.
Reporter Kyle Ingram contributed.
This story was originally published March 17, 2026 at 11:11 AM.
