'Fighting For Every Last Delegate,' Sanders Requests Kentucky Primary Recanvass

"We are simply making sure everything was counted and it was all added up correctly," a Sanders adviser told CNN. (Photo: Michael Vadon/flickr/cc)

'Fighting For Every Last Delegate,' Sanders Requests Kentucky Primary Recanvass

Sanders lost the state to Clinton by less than one-half of one percent

Bernie Sanders' campaign on Tuesday afternoon called for a recanvass of the Kentucky primary that took place last week.

"He's in this until every last vote is counted and he's fighting for every last delegate."
--Michael Briggs, Sanders' spokesman
Hillary Clinton was declared the winner by just 1,924 votes, according to the results posted online by Kentucky's secretary of state.

AP reports:

The Sanders campaign said it has asked the Kentucky secretary of state to have election officials review electronic voting machines and absentee ballots from last week's primary in each of the state's 120 counties.

Sanders signed a letter Tuesday morning requesting a full and complete check and recanvass of the election results in Kentucky.

"He's in this until every last vote is counted and he's fighting for every last delegate," said Sanders' spokesman Michael Briggs.

The office of Kentucky's secretary of state said Tuesday that they will begin the process on Thursday.

A recanvass is not the same thing as a recount "but a review of the voting totals," notes AP.

If the process finds that Sanders actually won the primary, it would mean that one delegate will go to Sanders instead of Clinton.

As for why Sanders decided to call for the recanvass, 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," CNN reports.

"We aren't looking anywhere in particular--we are simply making sure everything was counted and it was all added up correctly," the Sanders adviser told CNN, observing that "a couple transposed numbers can change the count."
"My office is notifying all county boards of elections that Sen. Sanders has requested a recanvass, and we are reminding them of the laws and procedures to be followed," said Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Grimes in a statement.

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