Trailing by 21 votes, White seeks second recount

It’s not over in the race for the seat to represent District 1 in the state Senate.
Incumbent Stan White is requesting a second recount — this one a partial hand-to-eye recount, according to a spokesman for the White campaign Tuesday afternoon.
“I can confirm that is going to happen,” said Tommy Fulcher, spokesman for the White campaign just before 5 p.m. Tuesday. “The deadline to do that was 4:46 p.m. (Tuesday).
White’s decision to request the hand-to-eye recount was not made lightly, Fulcher said.
“I’m telling you, Sen. White really wrestled with this thing, but he really got an outpouring of support and urging from his supporters to exhaust every avenue he had in this thing. … This decision wasn’t made until late today. It was entirely his decision based on what people were telling him,” Fulcher said.
“He wants to be sure, the campaign wants to be sure that what the voters said on Nov. 6 is really the verdict here,” said Fulcher, citing swings in vote totals from Election Day through the recount Monday. “The hand recount will determine what they said on Nov. 6.”
With all eight counties in state Senate District 1 completing their recounts in that race and reporting results to the N.C. State Board of Elections late Monday night or early Tuesday morning, Republican Bill Cook had a 21-vote lead over incumbent Stan White by early Tuesday. The state board’s website showed Cook with 43,735 votes (50.1 percent) Tuesday afternoon and White with 43,714 votes (49.9 percent).
Cook was not happy with White’s call for a second recount.
“Well, I think it’s too bad,” Cook said Tuesday evening. “I think he’s wasting the resources, costing the counties a lot of money they don’t need to spend. I’ve beat him twice now. I would think that would be enough. This is really going to far, I believe. It certainly is his right.”
The N.C. State Board of Elections’ website showed Cook, who currently represents District 6 in the state House, with a 21-vote lead over White, a Dare County Democrat at noon Tuesday.
It was unclear when the second recount would be conducted in each of the eight counties in the district. Fulcher said it could happen later this week.
In a manual, hand-to-eye recount, members of a local board of elections would not use electronic voting tabulators to count votes. Board members would look at a ballot to determine a voter’s choice.