2 NC legislature candidates request recounts in pair of still-close Mecklenburg races
A pair of Mecklenburg County races for the North Carolina General Assembly are headed to recounts.
Democrat Nicole Sidman requested a recount in her race against state Rep. Tricia Cotham in southeast Mecklenburg County’s House District 105, she confirmed to The Charlotte Observer. Republican Stacie McGinn also will request a recount in her race against Democrat Woodson Bradley to represent southeast Mecklenburg County in the North Carolina Senate, according to a statement.
The districts include many of the same precincts.
Cotham, who ran for the first time since she switched political parties, was certified as the winner in the redrawn southeast Mecklenburg district Friday by the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections. She won by a margin of 216 votes.
Sidman said in a statement her decision to request a recount is about ensuring voters “have their faith in our democratic process confirmed.”
“The recount process is designed to maintain faith in our democratic system of government,” she said.
In an earlier email to supporters, Sidman vowed to “fight like hell for every vote.”
After local election officials certified results Friday, the Republican House Caucus declared Cotham victorious and called on Sidman not to pursue a recount, saying the Democrat was “mathematically eliminated.”
“It’s time for Nicole Sidman to accept not only reality, but the wishes of the voters,” the caucus said in a statement.
Recount in Senate District 42
McGinn said in a statement Monday she is “prepared to accept the final result” in her race against Bradley but wants “to ensure that every legitimate vote is included in the final tally.”
“With such a small margin and so much at stake, it’s reasonable to ensure nothing was missed in the ballot-counting process,” McGinn said.
Local elections officials certified Bradley as the winner Friday in Senate District 42 by a margin of 204 votes.
McGinn’s campaign noted the GOP candidate won the Election Day vote and said it “doesn’t seem right” for absentee voters to decide the fate of the race.
“Many absentee voters don’t live in our area and may be unfamiliar with the local candidates and their positions,” McGinn said.
McGinn won the Election Day vote by a margin of 11,362 to 8,344, according to official results, while Bradley won the early in-person vote, absentee by-mail and provisional ballots.
How do recounts work?
Mecklenburg County Elections Director Michael Dickerson told board members last week any recounts would start Wednesday and likely take until Nov. 22 to complete. There are tens of thousands of votes to recount in each of the legislative districts.
Dickerson said elections staff would start running ballots through machines at the county board’s offices Wednesday and set up an additional 120 machines at the Valerie C. Woodard Community Resource Center starting Thursday.
This story was originally published November 18, 2024 at 2:08 PM.
