Vance and Granville counties will conduct a recount in the too-close-to-call contest for House District 32, which has Democratic challenger Bryan Cohn leading Republican incumbent Frank Sossamon by 233 votes.
Because that margin is less than 1 percent of the voting totals – .53 percent, to be precise – the challenger (in this case, Sossamon) was entitled to ask for a recount by 12 noon today. Vance County Board of Elections Director Haley Rawles told WIZS News Tuesday that she received a notification of the recount from Raleigh shortly before 11:30 a.m.
Sossamon spoke with WIZS News this morning as he was waiting for the General Assembly to convene and confirmed that he would be seeking a recount.
“It hasn’t been filed, but it will be filed before 12,” Sossamon said by phone shortly before 11 a.m. He said he’d waited until now to let the process play out, which included the Nov. 15 canvass and certifying and counting provisional and absentee ballots.
“A lot of elections are cut-and-dry,” he said. “Close elections are different…and there are options that candidates have,” including filing protests if there are “anomalies,” and filing a lawsuit.
Rawles said Vance County elections officials will begin the recount at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20 for two races – the District 32 contest and a statewide recount for a seat on the N.C. Supreme Court between sitting Justice Allison Riggs and Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin.
Rawles expects the recounts to take the majority of the day to complete, if not longer.
WIZS News reached out to Granville County Board of Elections Director Tonya Burnette Tuesday afternoon to find out when the recount would begin in that county and we will update the story if that information becomes available.
In a concise letter sent via email to N.C. State Board of Elections Director Karen Brinson Bell, Sossamon requested the recount.
It reads:
Executive Director Brinson Bell,
As a candidate for North Carolina House District 32 in the 2024 General Election, I her3eby submit my written demand for a mandatory recount pursuant to the N.C. Gen. Stat. 163-182.7(c) and 163-182.4(b)(3). Please confirm receipt of this timely written demand at your earliest convenience.
Sincerely,
Frank Sossamon
Sossamon expressed frustration when it came to finding out what his options were regarding a recount and said he felt voters weren’t adequately inform about redrawn district lines that removed a portion of Vance County from District 32.
Nobody said “Mr. Sossamon, you can call for a recount,” Sossamon said. “I had to find that out for myself – I find that quite alarming.”
Sossamon also said he was concerned to learn that voters in Vance County showed up to vote and noticed that the District 32 race wasn’t on their ballot.
“They were thinking they could vote for me, but I wasn’t on their ballot,” he said, adding that “people who are already skeptical of the voting system are getting even more skeptical.”
In a telephone interview Tuesday, Cohn said he was pleased with the overall process but acknowledged that the campaign was “long and expensive, and, at times, a rather dirty campaign. I don’t think anybody is happy about any of that.”
(This text and story developed more after the embedded audio below.)
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