Primary Elections

The recount involved ballots from three precincts across the district. Berger needed to gain two votes to trigger a full recount. He did not.

Berger filed four protests Tuesday. He also requested a machine recount in the race, which began Tuesday in Guilford County.

Berger says there are several "overvotes" and hundreds of "undervotes" in Senate District 26 election, asks elections board members to visually check those ballots.

Berger, North Carolina's longtime state Senate leader, trails by 23 votes after the county canvass. His campaign says some voters in Guilford County who should have had that senate district on their ballots swear they did not.

Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page led the Senate's Republican leader by two votes heading into Friday's tally of provisional ballots. It is now 23 votes.

Page held a significant lead in the two politicians' home of Rockingham County, and Berger could not catch up in rural Guilford County. The race is almost certainly headed to a recount.

North Carolina's elections director, Karen Brinson Bell, addressed a joint legislative oversight committee on the challenges the state faces this year as major election law changes, such as the photo ID requirement, take effect.

At least one of last week's primaries for the state legislature could be headed to a recount, and several county-level primaries are also close enough for recounts.

Many of the candidates for Congress, statewide offices and the legislature have been running for months. But others waited until the 11th hour to launch their campaigns or announce they won't be running at all.

In all, 7 states were holding primaries Tuesday.