Christian County election officials have confirmed the local results of the governor’s race between incumbent Republican Matt Bevin and his Democratic challenger, Attorney General Steve Beshear.
During a meeting of the county election board Thursday morning at the courthouse, the members conducted a recanvass of the total from every voting machine’s tally and came up with the same result the county clerk’s office had reported on election night to state officials.
Bevin had 7,974 votes in Christian County to Beshear’s 6,023. The libertarian candidate, John Hicks, had 296.
The election board — comprised of County Clerk Mike Mike, Deputy County Clerk Melinda Humphries, Sheriff Tyler DeArmond, Republican representative Roxane Thomas and Democratic representative Jim Gardner — confirmed the election result by having Humphries read a printed tally produced by each voting machine in Christian County’s 41 precincts, along with the absentee totals.
The members signed a one-page document confirming the recanvass and will send it to the state Board of Elections.
Bevin requested the recanvass after the election night result showed him losing to Beshear by approximately 5,200 vote, which is less than 1 percentage point of the state total.
The local election board in each of Kentucky’s 120 counties was charged with completing a recanvass Thursday morning.
Bevin conceded the race after the statewide recanvass was completed.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
