(The Center Square) – Two recounts down, no net change.
Three times total the votes have been counted, and challenger Sam Page remains 23 votes ahead of 13-term incumbent Sen. Phil Berger in North Carolina’s most hotly contested General Assembly seat. The Republican primary for Senate District 26 has more than delivered on projections for a razor thin difference between the two Eden residents, and litigation is in the forecast from veteran politicos.
There are also 13 ballots awaiting decisions through four protests. The race is projected as the lone election that will not be certified by the State Board of Elections on Wednesday.
Patrick Sebastian, spokesman for Page, in a statement said, “After these ballots have been counted three times, the result remains exactly the same – Sam Page defeated Phil Berger. It’s time for Senator Berger to give his complete and total concession.”
Tuesday’s hand-to-eye recounts in Rockingham and Guilford counties gave opportunity that if enough change were uncovered and applied to all ballots cast and there could be a different winner, then a full hand-to-eye recount would be ordered. With no net change on the roughly 1,300 of more than 26,000 ballots cast, that did not happen.
Page, the sheriff of Rockingham County since 1998, led by two votes at the end of primary Election Night. After provisionals and final overseas and military mailed were in, and the canvass complete, his lead over the Senate president pro tempore was 23.
Berger, leader of the chamber since the historic 2010 midterms, won’t overcome that difference even if victorious on all four protests. He’s repeatedly asked for overvote and undervote ballots to be hand-to-eye examined, saying 220 ballots are in the balance of that request.
An example of an overvote, the state board says, is when a ballot has two choices in a “Vote for One” contest. An undervote would be when the number of choices is less than the maximum number allowed.
Five undervote ballots went past the Rockingham County Board of Elections in Tuesday’s sample recount. Chairman Don Powell said each was totally blank, no “fingerprint on them, a smudge or anything else.”
In his four protests, Berger says eight registered voters in Guilford County should have been eligible to vote in the District 26 primary, but a “ballot-style error” prevented them; and three administrative errors were in Rockingham County. One involves processing a residency change from Guilford to Rockingham County; another involves party affiliation change on Feb. 6 from Democrat to unaffiliated; and three unaffiliated registrants requested Democratic ballots, started to vote, then switched to requests for Republican ballots that were tallied among provisionals.
Tuesday represented Day 22 since primary Election Day, and the 76th since absentee ballots began going into the mail for the race. Millions of dollars have been spent, mostly on Berger’s reelection.
The Senate’s Republican leadership team behind Berger includes Sens. Ralph Hise of Mitchell County, deputy president pro tempore; Michael Lee of New Hanover County, majority leader; and Amy Galey of Alamance County and Todd Johnson of Union County, both majority whips.
Page was fifth in the Republican primary for lieutenant governor in 2024.
Each aligned with Trump on policy. Berger and Page clashed on a proposal that could have landed a casino in their home county. Berger was for it, Page against. Berger eventually stopped pursuit of the project.
