Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes this afternoon announced that a statewide recanvass of the votes in the Republican primary elections for governor/Lieutenant Governor and commissioner of agriculture did not change the results of the elections.
Pursuant to requests from governor/lieutenant governor candidates James Comer/Chris McDaniel and agriculture commissioner candidate Richard Heath, each of Kentucky’s 120 county boards of elections convened today to recheck and recanvass each voting machine. The results were certified to the Secretary of State’s office.
“I’m grateful to our county boards of elections for their efforts to ensure confidence in the primary election results,” said Grimes. “Although there were several minor changes in vote totals, the recanvass did not affect which candidates will become the Republican party’s nominees.”
According to both previously reported vote totals and the recanvass results, Matt Bevin/Jenean Hampton received more votes than Comer/McDaniel in the Republican Gubernatorial Primary, and Ryan Quarles received more votes than Heath in the Republican Primary for Commissioner of Agriculture.
New election totals reflected no change in vote totals for Comer, Bevin or the last-place finisher in a four-way GOP primary for the governor nomination, Will T. Scott. Hal Heiner, however, picked up three more votes in Fayette County. Meantime, Heath picked up one vote in Fayette County, the state's second largest county, but his opponent, Quarles, picked up three more votes – two in Fayette County and one in Lincoln County.
County-by-county results of both recanvasses are available on the Secretary of State’s website.
With the exceptions of Daviess, Fayette, Henderson, Jefferson, Kenton, Nelson and Rowan counties, which received an extension until Monday to certify vote totals to the Secretary of State’s office, the results of the recanvass shall become the official returns of the county.
Grimes, Chair of the State Board of Elections, has called a meeting of the State Board of Elections on June 8 to certify the results of the May 19 Primary Election. All vote totals remain unofficial until certified by the State Board of Elections.
