Mel Madarang
WMAL.com
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (WMAL)- Montgomery County Executive Candidate David Blair announced Tuesday that his campaign is planning to request a recount of votes following the release of the 2018 Primary Election’s certified results, according to an emailed statement.
While his campaign is in support of nominee “chosen in a timely manner,” Blair stated that his campaign has concerns with the certified results after hearing complaints from voters.
In an interview with WMAL, Blair said, “We are currently going through the election results, we have a number of kinda data analysts looking for anomalies and trying to determine if it would be appropriate to move towards a full recount.”
His team is focusing on issues with provisional ballots that may have stemmed from the Motor Vehicle Administration.
Some of the issues his campaign has heard from voters are rejected provisional ballots that relate to first-time voters and young voters, as well as communication of misinformation between voters and polling places.
According to the Maryland Board of Elections Rules, a candidate can file a request for a recount within three days of the announced voting results. Aware of this rule, Blair said his team intends to make a decision “within the next day or so.”
Blair said that the county estimates that a full recount would cost his campaign between $150,000 and $200,000.
Monday evening’s results showed that Blair was trailing certified Democratic nominee Marc Elrich by 79 votes, making it the closest County Executive race in history, according to Blair’s statement.
The process for a recount takes approximately a week.
Copyright 2018 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (Photo: David Blair Campaign)
