Kentucky 13th District House race candidate DJ Johnson, center, talks to election officials. Photo / AP
Kentucky 13th District House race candidate DJ Johnson, center, talks to election officials. Photo / AP
A recount in a Kentucky state House race originally won by a Democrat by a single vote has ended in a tie after the local board of elections decided to open and count five absentee ballots that had previously been rejected.
Democrat Jim Glenn defeated former Republican state representative DJJohnson by a one-vote margin. Kentucky does not have automatic recounts, and the Kentucky State Board of Elections certified Glenn as the winner. He was sworn in on January 5 and has an office and been assigned to committees.
But the Republican-controlled state legislature ordered a recount at Johnson's request.
Yesterday, the Daviess County Clerk's Office recounted more than 12,000 ballots by hand. Glenn emerged from that process ahead by three votes. But after a personal appeal from Johnson, the Daviess County Board of Elections voted to give Johnson one of those votes back, putting him down by two.
The board then reviewed 17 absentee ballots that they had unanimously rejected on election day. This time, the board decided five of those ballots were legal, and opened them. Johnson received three, Glenn one and one ballot was blank. Each candidate received 6323 votes.
The next step is for the Daviess County Clerk's Office to send a report to the Election Contest Board which must decide what to do next and report to the House of Representatives, which has the ultimate say. A state law indicates the board must choose the winner by drawing lots.
Anna Whites, Glenn's lawyer, noted he has been sworn in and seated as a state legislator, and the only way he can be removed is impeachment. She said Glenn would sue over any attempt to remove him.
Of the at least 80 recounts following the 2018 elections, five were decided by one-vote margins, and two of those recounts resulted in ties. In Fairmont, West Virginia, officials chose the winner of a city council seat by flipping buttons in a coffee can.
