Politics

Berger requests recount, files protests

By SARAH MICHELS, Carolina Public Press, Published: March 23, 2026

In the coming days, election officials in Guilford and Rockingham counties will conduct a recount in the race for North Carolina State Senate District 26.

Republican Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger filed an official recount request on March 17 with the State Board of Elections in his contest against Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page. 

State and local election boards will also look into a series of protests Berger filed later that day.

The pair are separated by 23 votes, with Page leading, after county canvasses made election results official on Friday, March 13. 

For months, political onlookers watched closely as Berger, perhaps the most powerful politician in North Carolina, consistently broke even with Page in the polls, despite spending millions more, gaining President Donald Trump’s endorsement and boasting a 22-year history as North Carolina Republicans’ legislative leader.

On election day, the polls proved reliable. At the end of the night, Page was up by two votes. Once provisional ballots were considered and military and overseas absentee ballots were counted, his lead broadened to 23 votes. 

Page wasn’t surprised. After canvass results, he told reporters the relationships he’s built in his 28 years as sheriff mattered more than the money raised. 

“I never forget who my bosses are and who I serve: the citizens of Rockingham County,” he said. “Now, I’m going to add Guilford County.” 

Berger’s campaign was not immediately available for comment. 

Berger cites overvotes, undervotes

Second-place candidates have a right to call for a recount if the difference between them and the first-place candidate is less than 1% of the total votes cast in the race. In this case, a 23-vote margin easily qualifies. 

While no justification was required, Berger’s campaign offered one in its letter to the State Board of Elections. 

Based on the Berger campaign’s review of available records, there were three overvotes and 217 undervotes between Rockingham and Guilford counties. 

Overvotes are cases in which a voter selects more candidates than allowed on their ballot. Under North Carolina statute, if a voting machine rejects a ballot due to an overvote, but a human counter can tell what the voter’s choice was intended to be, they are permitted to count the ballot. 

Undervotes happen when a voter chooses fewer options for a contest than allowed. For example, if a voter casting a ballot in an at-large city council election where they are supposed to pick two candidates only selects one. 

In this case, an undervote would occur when a voting machine didn’t detect a choice in the Berger-Page contest. It is very possible that some voters decided not to vote in the legislative race, but the Berger campaign is asking the State Board to review those cases, to double-check that the machine was correct in detecting no markings. 

Now, the State Board will issue a schedule and instructions to the county election boards concerning the recount. During its Wednesday meeting, the State Board will discuss whether to conduct a full machine recount or honor Berger’s request for a more limited recount of only the ballots with undervotes and overvotes.

Two-person bipartisan teams will do the recounting, while a quorum of county election board members are present. The recount will be open to the public. 

Page posted a statement on the recount to social media last week. 

“We won this election because the voters of Guilford and Rockingham counties made their decision clear,” he wrote. “Phil Berger has the right to request a recount, and I’m confident it will confirm the outcome. We won.” 

Four election protests filed

Just before the 5 p.m. deadline on March 17, the Berger campaign filed four election protests involving 13 voters who for various reasons were unable to cast votes in the race. 

Candidates may file election protests if they say election misconduct occurred that casts doubt on the outcome of the election. They have until two business days after the canvass to do so, which worked out to Tuesday, March 17. 

Berger’s protests collectively do not involve enough voters to flip the outcome of the race; but if taken together, along with any shift in vote totals from the pending recount, they might. An investigation into at least one of the protests could also potentially identify additional voters who were affected if the claims were upheld.

Berger’s first election protest alleged that some Guilford County voters who should have received a ballot including the Senate District 26 race did not.  

Since Senate District 26 only covers part of Guilford County, some voters would be able to cast a ballot in the race, while others wouldn’t, based on their addresses. 

In his protest, Berger alleges that at least eight Republican voters in his district did not receive a ballot with the Senate District 26 race. The voters’ names are redacted, since the Berger campaign has also asked the State Board to investigate the matter; such investigations are confidential until complete. 

Page raised the alarm on social media Monday evening about the protest. He said his campaign had learned that the Berger campaign was contacting voters to ask whether they received the correct ballot. 

“In a desperate attempt to cling to power after being rejected by voters, Phil Berger is questioning the very election system he put in place,” Page wrote in another social media post. “Voters should never feel pressured by a defeated candidate to say something that isn’t true.”

Page’s legal team also sent out texts to voters in the district, telling them that submitting a false affidavit is a felony, and instructing them to call Page’s team “if anyone from the Berger campaign is pressuring you to sign something that isn’t true.” 

Berger’s protest cited that text as another reason to keep the impacted voters’ names private. His team wrote that their efforts to learn whether more than eight voters received the wrong ballot style may have been “undermined” by the texts from the Page legal team.

Election officials have procedures in place to ensure that voters get the correct ballots. When voters check in to vote, election officials check which ballot style they should get based on the address and party affiliation listed on their voter registration. 

According to Page’s statement, the Guilford County elections board also confirmed that during early voting, the number of ballots cast in the legislative race matched the number of ballots that were supposed to be issued. The Guilford County elections director was not immediately available for comment, as he was involved in another recount Tuesday. 

Since the election protest involves Guilford County, the county elections board will be the first to address it. Berger’s team asked the county board to investigate whether the identified voters were actually issued an incorrect ballot, and if they were, to allow them to cast votes in the race. 

Berger’s second protest involves just one voter: Kara Price, a Rockingham County resident. Price moved from Guilford County to Rockingham County in 2024 with her husband. She said she mailed a voter registration application to the county board of elections with her husband after moving, and also updated her registration at a 2025 trip to the DMV to renew her driver’s license.

Her husband had no issues voting. However, Price had to cast a provisional ballot on Election Day in Rockingham County, as elections staff said their records indicated she was still a Guilford County voter. The county board rejected her provisional ballot, since they couldn’t find a record of her mailing or DMV update. 

In the protest, Berger’s team argues that since the issue was not the voter’s, but rather a likely administrative error, Price’s vote should count. 

The third protest involves three unaffiliated voters who decided to vote a Republican ballot after initially selecting a Democratic ballot. Unaffiliated voters may choose which party primary they’d like to vote in. 

They voted provisional ballots, which were approved. Berger’s team is asking election boards to reject the provisional ballots. In the protest, they argue that provisional ballots are not meant for party switches, but instead when a voter’s eligibility is questioned. 

The final protest involves Courtney Dillard, a Rockingham County voter who switched her party affiliation from Democratic to unaffiliated on Feb. 6, 2026. Dillard herself did not turn in her party change paperwork; it exchanged a number of hands before making it to the Rockingham County Board of Elections.

When Dillard went to vote, she was still registered as a Democrat, and therefore, unable to vote in the Republican primary. She was not given a Republican provisional ballot, she said. Berger’s team argues that she should have been provided a provisional ballot, and she should be allowed to cast a Republican ballot. 

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Sarah Michels is a staff writer for Carolina Public Press specializing in coverage of North Carolina politics and elections. She is based in Raleigh.