With only 197 votes separating him from victory, Doug Racine asked for a statewide recount today to determine who won Tuesday’s Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Standing outside Town Hall in his hometown of Richmond, just hours after official tallies were released, Racine told reporters that the razor-thin margin of victory tipped the scales toward a recount for him. He said he owes it to his supporters and to all Vermonters to be sure the 74,634 Democratic ballots cast were counted accurately.

The official tally puts Racine 197 votes behind Peter Shumlin, who all but declared victory Wednesday after unofficial tallies put him 190 votes ahead.

“This is about making sure that all Vermonters know their votes were properly counted and that the outcome is the right outcome,” Racine said. “It’s on that basis — the closeness — that this race should be recounted. It’s less than one vote per town in the state of Vermont.”

This article appears in Aug 25-31, 2010.

Andy Bromage was a Seven Days staff writer from 2009-2012, and the news editor from 2012-2013.

13 replies on “VIDEO: Racine Asks for a Recount; Re-Tally Should Take One Week”

  1. By the way, besides the Vermont Democratic primary vote recount making either Peter Shumlin or Doug Racine the nominee (Deb Markowitz’s chances are perceived as highly doubtful by most political observers), as highly unlikely as the odds of such occurring were said to be for the primary election, the fourth potential result — no one else seems to be mentioning as a possibility — could be a tie (emphasis mine):

    § 2369. Determining winner; tie votes Persons who receive a plurality of all the votes cast by a party in a primary shall be candidates of that party for the office designated on the ballot. If two or more candidates of the same party are tied for the same office, the choice among those tied shall be determined: (1) Upon five days’ notice and not later than 10 days following the primary election, the state committee of a party, for a state or congressional office; the senatorial district committee for state senate; the county committee for county office; or the representative district committee for a representative to the general assembly shall meet to nominate a candidate from among the tied candidates. (Amended 2010, No. 73 § 1.) (2) The committee chair shall certify the candidate nomination for the general election to the secretary of state within 48 hours of the nomination. (Added 1977, No. 269 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; amended 2010, No. 73 § 1.)

    Just saying …

  2. “Considering that he is the most nuance-free, subtlety-free, context-free public orator in recent Vermont history. He speaks as if everything were 100% black-and-white, and there’s only ever two options, yes or no, up or down, black or white. His way or the wrong way…”That’s like…your opinion man. You haven’t given any examples at all.No offense to Andy Bromage, but what he chooses to juxtapose does not move me very much.You have to do better Webber. Explan why were Shumlin’s two statements were a “Flip. Flop.” How does saying one prefers decision A, but respects decision B a “flip flop?”Do you even still see it as a flip flop, or do you now see that it wasn’t?

  3. Throughout the campaign, all five agreed to run with some civility in the best interests of the party, and defeating Dubie in November. I think Peter’s “flip-flop” is simply him acting in the best interests of his party (and his probable campaign against Dubie) by first promoting himself and then quietly going along with Doug’s choice. So no, no “flip-flopping” here in my mind. Plus, I don’t think that anyone, either for Peter or Doug, or any of the other Dems, is going to walk away from the party vote because of the recount. Money and GOTV may be an issue, but any true Dem who voted in the primary is already locked up.

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