Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes said Thursday the state’s Democratic primary results remain unchanged following a complete re-canvassing of the totals, requested by Bernie Sanders presidential campaign.
“A statewide recanvass of the votes was conducted in the May 17 Democratic presidential primary election and the results did not change the outcome of the election,” said a statement from Grimes’ office. “The results remain unchanged from the totals certified by county boards of elections to the secretary of state last week, as required by law.”
Sanders requested the re-canvass after rival Hillary Clinton narrowly won the Bluegrass State earlier this month.
He signed the request Tuesday morning, according to spokesman Michael Briggs, which read: “Pursuant to KY statute (KRS 117.305) I hereby request a full and complete re-canvass of every one of the voting machines and absentee ballots in all precincts and all 120 counties involving the primary.”
Clinton’s lead was by 1,923 votes, according to the Grimes’ office – with 46.8% of the vote to Sanders’ 46.3%. Clinton won 28 delegates to Sanders’ 27.
Grimes, a Democrat and vocal Clinton supporter, said in a tweet that county boards of elections would gather at 9 a.m. on Thursday to begin the re-canvass.
A senior Sanders adviser said the campaign has no specific reason to believe anything was miscounted, but is just checking to be sure since the race was so close. The campaign is not pointing to any specific county or precinct they see as being wrong or suspicious in Kentucky.
“We aren’t looking anywhere in particular – we are simply making sure everything was counted and it was all added up correctly,” a Sanders adviser says, noting that “how a couple transposed numbers can change the count.”
Sanders supporters online have been calling for a recount, and the margin is narrow enough that the law allows for it.
Clinton’s campaign is aware of Sanders’ request to re-canvass but said is has no plans to try to stop it, even if it could.
“They have been all over the map,” a Clinton aide said of the Sanders camp, adding that going forward with a re-canvass is a “decision he has got to make.”
The Clinton aide suggested that Sanders was doing this, in part, to fundraise off the issue, a point the Sanders camp disputed.
“It’s still morning here in California and they’re already saying things that are not true,” Briggs said in a statement.
Sanders has an extremely narrow path to the Democratic nomination, which rests largely on winning a majority of pledged delegates and then convincing superdelegates backing Clinton to switch sides. Sanders needs more delegates to clinch the nomination, 856, than are available in the remaining contests, 781.
CNN’s Dan Merica contributed to this report.