Incumbent N.C. Rep. Frank Sossamon has until noon tomorrow – Tuesday, Nov. 19 – to put the wheels in motion to call for a recount in the contest to retain his District 32 seat.
Both Vance and Granville’s boards of elections completed the canvass on Friday, Nov. 15 to certify results of the Nov. 5 general election, including the District 32 race, in which challenger Bryan Cohn holds a 233-vote lead over the incumbent Sossamon.
The N.C. State Board of Elections website lists vote totals as 21,213 for Cohn, a Democrat, and 20,980 for the Republican Sossamon. Cohn won handily in Vance County, taking 60.55 percent of the vote to Sossamon’s 37.26 percent; Sossamon won among Granville County voters by a 52.67 percent to 44.53 percent margin.
State law states that a recount can occur in non-statewide contests where the margin of victory is 1 percent or less of total votes cast. The 233-vote margin is .53 of 1 percent of the total vote.
“In contests under the jurisdiction of the State Board of Elections (including General Assembly seats in which the district lies in more than one county), the recount demand must be in writing and received by the State Board of Elections no later than noon on Tuesday, Nov. 19,” according to the state board of elections website.
There has been no indication about whether Sossamon will make a recount request.
The District 32 race is one of two key contests yet to be decided – the other is District 25 in Nash County – which will determine whether Republican keep their supermajority in the N.C. House.
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