Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Two of the losing candidates from the May 21 primary election have filed their papers with the Secretary of State’s office to seek a recanvass of the vote totals released on election night in their respective races.

One was in the Republican primary for the 7th State Senate District seat, which includes Anderson, Henry, Shelby and part of Jefferson counties.

The incumbent, Adrienne Southworth of Lawrenceburg, who has been in office since 2021, faced two challengers from Shelbyville, Aaron Reed and Ed Gallrein. The election night numbers had Reed with 4,826 votes (39 percent), 117 votes ahead of Gallrein with 4,709 (38 percent). Southworth with 2,742 (22 percent). Those close numbers prompted Gallrein to seek the recanvass.

The winner will face off in November against Rhonda Davis, who was unopposed in the Democratic primary. 

The other recanvass will be for the Democratic nomination in the 36th House District, which includes a portion of eastern Jefferson County.

William “Woody” Zorn finished on top with 1,019 votes, but that was just five more than Colin Daugherty McDowell, who had 1,014 in the election night tally.

The winner will meet incumbent Rep. John Hodgson, who is seeking his second term, and had no opposition in the GOP primary.

The recanvassing process, which will take place at 9 a.m. on Thursday, May 30, is fairly quick. It should take no more than an hour or two for each county, as it simply requires the County Clerks to re-run the machine count of vote totals – either through the county’s central tabulation system or by comparing the machine printouts with the initial county-wide totals. The counties must then send the new totals to the State Board of Elections.

A certification vote by the State Board will be the final step in making the results official and determine the matchups in November.