‘The voters have spoken’: NC Sen. leader Phil Berger concedes to primary rival Sam Page

More than three weeks after North Carolina’s primary election, Senate President Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) has conceded the race to his primary rival, Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page, who led Berger by 23 votes after two recounts.

Berger, who’s led the Republican majority in the state Senate since 2011 and is arguably the state’s most powerful politician, congratulated Page Tuesday afternoon in a statement: “While this was a close race, the voters have spoken.”

“I appreciate Senator Berger’s call earlier today and his concession,” said Rockingham Sheriff Sam Page.

Berger called Page around 4:00pm Tuesday to officially concede the hotly contested race.

“He wished me best of luck in the future as we move forward to November,” Page told reporters at a hastily-called news conference late Tuesday afternoon. “Likewise, I thank him for his contributions that he’s done as our senator representing us here in Rockingham County and in Guilford County.”

Page said that Berger told him all legal protests that were scheduled in Guilford and Rockingham County would be dropped.

Berger and groups supporting him spent more than $10 million on this campaign. Berger also had the benefit of President Donald Trump’s endorsement.

Page said none of that mattered in the end.

“What I said was this race will not be won on money raised. It will be won on relationships that we’ve established and the trust we built over the past 28 years with the citizens,” said Page. “It truly rang true today.”

Page said he is now focused on November. He is also encouraging the legislature to pass a comprehensive state budget.

“There a lot of people who work for the state and do important things to help run state government, looking after our citizens,” said Page. “Let go ahead and make sure we get that budget set, and from this point forward shoot for July 1.”

North Carolina is the only state that failed to pass a budget last year.

No change in second recount

A sample hand-eye recount conducted Tuesday morning in Guilford and Rockingham counties did not find any additional votes for Berger, who continues to trail Page by 23 votes.

The votes were already recounted using voting tabulators with no change to the margin. As allowed by law, Berger requested a sample hand-eye recount to double-check the machine results.

Under state law, the North Carolina Board of Elections randomly selects 3% of precincts in a contested race. It selected two precincts in Guilford and one in Rockingham, totaling about 1,300 votes out of the more than 26,000 cast in the primary.

Guilford’s recount found no errors. Neither did Rockingham’s.

By law, a full hand-eye recount isn’t conducted unless the sample recount finds a large enough deviation from the machine recount to change the outcome of the race if extrapolated across the rest of the precincts in the district. In this case, Berger needed to pick up two votes to proceed to a full recount.

Berger had filed protests amounting to 13 votes, saying some voters were given incorrect ballots and others were either improperly allowed to vote or prevented from casting a vote. Both county boards were scheduled to hear evidence in those protests in the coming days.

Berger had also asked the State Board of Elections to order a full hand-eye recount of 217 ballots that voting tabulators rejected as undervotes or overvotes.

An undervote is when a voter appears not to have voted in a race. The voter may not have fully marked the ballot, or may simply have opted not to vote in that race. An overvote is when there are marks besides both candidates. Sometimes, voters can vote for more candidates than allowed, or start marking one name, then change their mind.

“These overvotes and undervotes could very likely determine the outcome of this race,” Berger wrote in his request.

The state board declined to consider Berger’s request. State elections director Sam Hayes said there’s no provision in state voting that specifically allows it. Berger argued the board has the authority to order such a recount, anyway, but Page said that would amount to special treatment.

Berger had also filed an election complaint against the Page campaign, alleging voter intimidation. Page has denied any wrongdoing.

This story is developing and will be updated.