Matt Bevin concedes, says he won't contest election recanvass outcome

Joe Sonka | Courier Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption Matt Bevin won't contest election loss to Andy Beshear "I truly wish the attorney general well as the next governor of this state as he assumes these responsibilities," Bevin said.

All 120 county boards of elections began a recanvass of the votes in Kentucky's race for governor at 9 a.m. today.

Gov. Matt Bevin requested the recanvass last week after he came up roughly 5,189 votes short of Democrat Andy Beshear.

In a recanvass, a county reviews printouts of their vote totals to make sure they transmitted the correct number to the secretary of state on Election Day.

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Read our preview explaining the recanvass and what you should expect to see here.

3:46 p.m.

Minutes after Gov. Matt Bevin conceded the governor’s race, Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes announced the recanvass resulted in no change in the vote totals for Democrat Andy Beshear, the state’s attorney general, and Republican incumbent Bevin.

“Attorney General Beshear will be the 63rd governor of the commonwealth of Kentucky, winning the general election by 5,136 votes,” she said.

The only change, she said, was the addition of a single vote from Casey County for write-in gubernatorial candidate Blackii Effing Whyte.

Grimes said the state Board of Elections will meet next Thursday to certify the results.

Grimes said she had no idea what Bevin was talking about when, just minutes before, he said he hopes incoming secretary of state Michael Adams will work to increase transparency and public confidence in Kentucky elections.

“We should make sure we have integrity in the election process,” Bevin said.

Grimes said the biggest threat to elections are those who attempt to discredit or undermine the election process and that she, as secretary of state, has worked for eight years to ensure integrity of elections and increase access to voting as well turnout.

Officials should work “to battle misinformation and misinformation,” she said.

At 2:15 p.m., Bevin spoke to reporters just outside of his office and conceded defeat to Beshear, wishing him well as Kentucky's next governor and saying he would not contest the election in a special session of the General Assembly.

"I'm not gonna contest these numbers that have come in," Bevin said. "It isn't fair to throw that on our legislature to try to find something there that just isn't. We know of some things but just not enough to cause us to think there's gonna be meaningful change."

The Courier Journal story on Bevin's concession of the race to Beshear on Thursday can be read here.

2:32 p.m.

All 120 counties have now reported the results of their vote recanvass, showing that the vote totals for Bevin and Beshear are identical to the counties' official results submitted to the secretary of state last week.

Governor-elect Andy Beshear received 709,890 votes, and incumbent Gov. Matt Bevin received 704,754 votes, a margin of 5,136 votes.

The State Board of Elections is schedule to verify those results at their meeting on Nov. 14, and Beshear will be sworn in as governor on Dec. 10.

2:19 p.m.

Bevin announced that he will not contest the results of the election, and Andy Beshear will be Kentucky's next governor.

2:08 p.m.

Boards of elections in 115 counties have now reported their recanvass totals to the secretary of state's office, with only five counties remaining.

The vote totals for Bevin and Beshear are unchanged from the official results submitted by the counties last week.

1:30 p.m.

Boards of elections for 103 counties have now reported recanvass results, which show no change in the vote totals for Bevin and Beshear from the counties' official tallies last week. Only 17 counties remain left to report their recanvass totals.

Gov. Bevin announced moments ago that he will hold a press conference at 2:15 p.m. in his office inside the Capitol Building in Frankfort. The press release did not indicate what he would address.

Grimes is scheduled to hold a press conference at 3 p.m. to address the results of the recanvass, and Beshear is scheduled to hold a press conference following the one by the secretary of state.

12:37 p.m.

Two-thirds of the way through the recanvass, Michael Adams, the Republican elected to succeed Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes as secretary of state, said he was “very satisfied” with the process of verifying the results of last week’s gubernatorial election.

“I want to reassure all Kentuckians that this has been done by the book,” Adams, a lawyer, said as he appeared with Grimes outside the secretary of state’s office to speak with reporters.

Grimes, who leaves office at the end of the year, had invited Adams to attend and help oversee the recanvass.

The secretary of state said the results so far have brought no changes except for a single uncounted vote from Casey County for write-in candidate Blackii Effing Whyte. (That is his real name)

Boards of elections for 95 counties have now reported recanvass results, which show no change in the vote totals for Bevin and Beshear from the counties' official tallies last week.

11:59 a.m.

Boards of elections in 79 counties have now reported their recanvass totals to the secretary of state's office. The vote totals for Bevin and Beshear are unchanged from the official results submitted by the counties last week.

11:32 a.m.

Boards of elections in 62 counties have now reported their recanvass totals to the secretary of state's office, with vote totals for Bevin and Beshear unchanged in each.

11:15 a.m.

Nearly 50 counties have now reported their recanvass totals to the secretary of state's office, and the vote totals for Bevin and Beshear remain unchanged in each county.

10:52 a.m.

Franklin County Clerk Jeff Hancock said he had not expected any changes in the vote total from the recanvass. The county election board already totaled and certified the results the day after the election.

“We’ve already done this once,” he said. “There’s nothing magical about this process.”

He declined to comment on unsubstantiated allegations of fraud statewide but said “In Franklin County, there’s been no irregularities.”

10:37 a.m.

In Jefferson County, six bipartisan members of the county’s board of elections began checking memory sticks from voting machines promptly at 9 a.m.

There was a slight hiccup right before the process begun. Per Kentucky state law, only one person can be present on behalf of each candidate and another person on behalf of each party. Maryellen Allen, co-director of the Jefferson County Elections Center, confirmed for The Courier Journal that an extra woman was there on behalf of Bevin. The woman left without protest when the issue was raised.

The county's results remained unchanged after the recanvass. Bevin received 87,740 votes and Beshearreceived 186,561 — the same number Jefferson County certified on Nov. 8.

10:26 a.m.

County boards of election in Anderson, Madison, Bullitt and Woodford have now completed their recanvass and found their vote totals unchanged from their officials totals last week.

9:56 a.m.

Fayette County — the second-largest county in the state — has finished their recanvass and found their vote totals unchanged from last week.

Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes announced that as of 9:45 a.m., eight counties had submitted their recanvass totals, and none were different from their official totals submitted last week. She said that Jefferson and Fayette were not among those who have submitted their recanvass totals yet.

Kentucky governors race: Gov. Matt Bevin requests a recanvass Gov. Matt Bevin holds a press conference aftger requesting a recanvass of votes in the Kentucky gubernatorial election

9:38 a.m.

Recanvassing has finished in both Jefferson County and Franklin County, with both showing their vote totals in the race for governor unchanged from their official results last week.

Grimes also announced that Nicholas County was the first board to submit their official recanvassing numbers to her office, which also showed that their vote totals were unchanged.

Letcher County and Owen County later submitted their recanvass totals, which were also unchanged from last week.

Reporters Deborah Yetter and Ben Tobin contributed to this story.

This post will be updated throughout the day as the recanvass progresses.

Reach reporter Joe Sonka at jsonka@courierjournal.com or 502-582-4472 and follow him on Twitter at @joesonka. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courierjournal.com/subscribe.