Checking the math: Elections officials to closely review ballot totals in two races

With Tuesday’s primary election behind them, two candidates who lost by very slim margins are asking for a second look.

Secretary of State Michael Adams announced Thursday that one Senate Republican candidate and one House Democratic candidate will get to “recanvass” their results.

Recanvasses are often confused with recounts, which are comparatively more intensive.

Recanvassing is simply a process of checking vote tabulations with county clerks working to ensure the numbers sent to the State Board of Elections on Election Night are correct. Recounting involves the examination of each ballot.

It’s rare that recanvasses change the result of an election.

Colin McDowell, who lost to Woody Zorn by five votes (1,019-1,014) in the House District 36 Democratic primary, asked for the primary night math to be checked again.

So, too, did Ed Gallrein. who lost to Aaron Reed in the GOP’s Senate District 7 race by just over 100 votes.

Adams said that the recanvasses will be held May 30. By state law, candidates can ask for a recanvass if they are within 1 percentage point from another candidate.

Zorn’s 5-point win was the tightest of all statehouse races in Kentucky. The seat is currently held by Rep. John Hodgson, R-Fisherville. The district generally leans Republican, with former GOP president Donald Trump beating Joe Biden in the district by about 12 percentage points in 2020.

This is the first election year for the newly constituted Senate District 7, which includes several Republican-dominated counties and parts of far Eastern Jefferson County. In 2020, it went for Trump by more than 30 points.

Sen. Adrienne Southworth will not move forward to the November election as her party’s nominee. During the GOP-led redistricting process, the Lawrenceburg Republican lost all the counties she’d previously run in with the exception of her home county of Anderson.

Southworth finished in third place, with 22% of the vote compared to Reed’s 39% and Gallrein’s 38%.

Reed is a former Navy SEAL who founded a gun store in Shelby County.

Gallrein is also a former Navy SEAL, and his family runs a popular destination farm in Shelby County, the most populous county in District 7.