Bevin refuses to concede to Beshear and requests a state-wide recanvass
By Jake Geiger | Staff Writer
The election for the next governor of Kentucky remains undetermined. Incumbent Republican Matt Bevin has refused to concede the race to Democrat challenger Andy Beshear.
According to the secretary of state’s office, Beshear earned a victory in the race after being up by 5,086 votes and by a margin of .4%.
However, Bevin claimed there were “voting irregularities” not addressed and wanted the “process to be followed” before conceding the race.
According to Yahoo News, under state law, a recanvass is defined as a “simple review of the vote totals by each county clerk counting absentee votes and checking printouts to make sure the numbers they transmitted to the State Board of Elections were correct.”
This state law only allows a recanvassing if one of the two following reasons applies: a county clerk or a county board of elections notices a discrepancy, or a candidate makes a written request to the secretary of state by the Tuesday after an election.
After Bevin claimed the race was “too close to call,” his campaign formally requested a recanvass of the votes, declaring that the people of Kentucky “deserve a fair and honest election.”
Bevin and his campaign decided to write a request to Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes. Grimes then sent the request to the State Board of Elections, and the county board of elections will begin the recanvassing tomorrow at 9 a.m.
“The recanvass is taking place this Thursday, after which time the results will likely become official and Beshear will become the governor-elect,” said Politics, Philosophy and the Public alumnus and Kentucky resident Jacob Jansen said.”
This is not the first time has faced a recanvass in recent memory. In the 2016 Kentucky Democratic Primary, Senator Bernie Sanders called for a recanvass. Fewer than 10 votes changed.
“While there is certainly the possibility of something having gone awry it’s highly unlikely seeing that there has been zero corroboration of his claims. Kentucky GOP leadership even called for him to provide evidence heading into the recanvass, and we have yet to hear back from him,” Jansen said.
Meanwhile, Beshear has already begun preparing for office and is pushing back on Bevin’s attempt to seek a recount.
The two have gone back and forth on what they think happened during this voting process and why they should be Kentucky’s next governor.
“Whatever process that the governor chooses to go down, it’s not going to change this overall number of votes,” Beshear said.
“We are going to take the steps to move forward to make sure that we are ready… on the day that we’re inaugurated.”
Meanwhile, Bevin continued to focus on the recanvass.
“We’re in the process of getting affidavits and other information that will help us to get a better understanding of what did or did not happen,” Bevin said.
Aside from the contested governor race, Kentucky voted Republican in every other major statewide race.
For Attorney General, Republican challenger Daniel Cameron defeated Gregory D. Stumbo by about 15%. The next secretary of state will be Republican challenger Michael G. Adams, who edged out Democrat Heather French Henry by nearly 5% of the vote.
Finally, Republicans Mike Harmon and Allison Ball respectively held onto their positions as auditor of public accounts and treasurer of Kentucky.