Billy Jack Valentine, a Republican candidate for Henderson County Sheriff, announced Friday afternoon that he has officially requested a recount of Tuesday’s election results.
After the votes were counted on election day, Valentine trailed Botie Hillhouse by just 55 votes, 6,827 to 6,762.
Thursday evening, the Athens Daily Review reported that the margin increased to 68 votes after some absentee ballots were counted.
There are still some provisional ballots to consider.
Valentine said that since the margin between the two candidates was so small — less than 1 percent — that he owed it to the people of Henderson County to request the recount.
The complete text from Valentine’s announcement is below:
On Election Day, Billy Jack Valentine won 51.36 % of the electronic votes cast to Botie Hillhouse’s 48.64 %. Consequently, Valentine has chosen to file for a recount.
Billy Jack Valentine announces that a Petition Requesting Recount has been filed for a complete recount with Betty Holland, the Henderson County Republican Party Chair. Valentine made his deposit to cover the costs of the recount on Friday, March 4, 2016.
Valentine said after viewing the unofficial Cumulative Vote Count that the difference between the two candidates is less than 1%. Election laws allow for petitioning for a recount in an election when the difference in vote totals between candidates is 10% or less. Valentine feels that the .5% vote total difference is such a small margin that he owes it to his supporters and to the people of Henderson County to request a recount.
Valentine said, “When you look at the Unofficial Cumulative Vote total on Election Day from all 27 precincts, I won Election Day voting by 188 votes.”
Hillhouse won early voting and absentee voting, with provisional votes yet to be counted.
The biggest margin of difference between Valentine and Hillhouse can be seen in the Absentee ballots. Valentine and Hillhouse were neck and neck in Early and Election Day voting; however in Absentee voting, Hillhouse held a commanding 58% to Valentine’s 41%.
Valentine noted that Absentee ballots are paper ballots, unlike the Early voting and Election Day electronic ballots, leaving more room for human error or miscounts. It is rare that vote counts are as close as these in an election with such a high voter turnout. In the race for Henderson County Sheriff, a total of 13,636 votes were cast. Valentine believes that it was obvious from the high voter turnout that people really care about the candidate who is elected as their sheriff; therefore, in order to assure that the results of the Sheriff’s race are absolutely accurate Valentine has asked for a recount.
Valentine stated, “The Election Code provides for recounts in races such as this when the vote totals are extremely close, to ensure fairness and that the right result was reached. My supporters believe it is important for the manually counted ballots to be reviewed to ensure a just and correct result.”