A 2021 law could trigger an automatic recount of the governor’s race for the first time Tuesday in Kentucky if results are as close as a recent Emerson College poll predicted.
While earlier polls had mostly showed Gov. Andy Beshear leading Attorney General Daniel Cameron, the Nov. 3 polling results showed the candidates in a dead heat.
The 2021 law, part of House Bill 574, triggers an automatic recount if the results of the governor’s race are closer than 0.5 percentage points. So while Kentuckians may be watching an acceptance speech either way on Tuesday evening, if results are as close as the Emerson poll predicted they may be, a recount will begin anyway.
Here’s what to expect Tuesday if there is a recount, former Secretary of State Trey Grayson told LINK nky. Grayson is also a partner at Frost Brown Todd in Cincinnati.
Numbers that come in on election night are unofficial and won’t be certified until Nov. 14. But if unofficial numbers Tuesday night show results to be closer than 0.5 percentage points, “the vendors are going to start that (recounting) process as if it’s going to happen,” Grayson said.
The recount would need to be completed by Nov. 29. How that recount will occur is still being figured out – a working group of state and county officials should have that decided by 1 p.m. Tuesday. LINK nky will update this story when that happens.
While the law would have triggered an automatic recount in the 2019 election between Gov. Andy Beshear and former Gov. Matt Bevin, Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer (R-Georgetown) told The Lexington Herald Leader’s Austin Horn that the race is not necessarily what led the Senate to include the automatic recount law in HB 574 in 2021.
“There’d been a number of close elections, and there was a general consensus in something that close that the voters and candidates deserved assurances that the result they were getting was the accurate one,” Thayer told Horn.
Even though a recount will be automatic depending on how close results are, Grayson said they are unlikely to change unless there’s an issue with reporting or the difference in votes is in the single digits — also an unlikely scenario.
“Unofficial numbers should be pretty tight,” Grayson said.
But Grayson does predict an acceptance speech from whoever looks to be winning Tuesday.
“It puts the psychological burden on their opponent,” he said. “If you’re in the lead you probably do that unless it’s pretty close.”
