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Kentucky Counties Will Recanvass Clinton-Sanders Presidential Primary Thursday

Composite: Clinton: J. Tyler Franklin/WFPL News; Sanders: Lance Dennee, WKMS

Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign has requested a recanvass in Kentucky's presidential primary, where he trails Hillary Clinton by less than 2,000 votes.  

The Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes says a recanvassing will take place Thursday, May 26th. 

Clinton pulled off a narrow 1,924-vote leadover Sanders out of 454,573 votes cast in the May 17th primary.

The Associated Press had not called the race, despite Clinton's slight lead, in the event that Sanders might ask to recanvass the vote.

Earlier today (Tuesday), Sanders campaign sent a written requestto Grimes' office asking to have election officials review electronic voting machines and absentee ballots from last week's primary in each of the state's 120 counties.

The Secretary's office released a statement mid-day saying it had received the request. 
“My office is notifying all county boards of elections that Sen. Sanders has requested a recanvass, and we are reminding them of the laws and procedures to be followed,” said Sec. Grimes. “As always, we will assist the county boards of elections in any way we can.”

The statewide recanvass will take place 9 a.m. Thursday, May 26th. County election boards will notify the candidates of the location of the recanvass. Immediately upon completion of the recanvass, the boards will file their recanvass reports with the Secretary of State.

Each candidate and both political parties may have a representative present at the recanvass, and the county board of elections shall authorize media to observe.

A recanvass is not a recount but a review of the voting totals.

Both Clinton and Sanders received 27 delegates, but one delegate remains to be allocated in a congressional district that includes Frankfort and Lexington. 

In addition to the Democratic presidential primary, the Jefferson County Board of Elections will also recanvass the results in the Republican primary for State Senate, 33rd District, at the request of candidate John Yuen who trails his opponent, Shenita Rickman, in unofficial totals.

The last statewide recanvass was conducted last year in the Republican Gubernatorial primary at the request of James Comer/Chris McDaniel, candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor. The margin was 83 votes and the recanvass did not change the results or outcome of the election.

Rob Canning is a native of Murray, KY, a 2015 TV Production grad of Murray State. At MSU, he served as team captain of the Murray State Rowing Club. Rob's goal is to become a screenwriter, film director or producer and looks to the likes of Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie for inspiration. He appreciates good music, mainly favoring British rock n' roll, and approves of anything with Jack White's name on it. When not studying, rowing or writing, Rob enjoys spending his free time with a book or guitar.
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