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Louisiana Senate race candidate asks for vote recount

Posted at 10:50 PM, Oct 15, 2019
and last updated 2019-10-15 23:50:53-04

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - One Republican candidate headed to an unusual three-person Louisiana state Senate runoff election is asking for a vote recount.

State Rep. Franklin Foil filed the request Tuesday with the East Baton Rouge Parish clerk of court.

Foil initially had an eight-vote lead over Republican Rep. Steve Carter for the second-place spot in Saturday's primary. But the secretary of state's office said Foil's lead evaporated after local election officials found problems with the scanning of mail-in absentee ballots and rescanned them.

Foil and Carter then tied for second place, with both slated to reach the Nov. 16 runoff against Democrat Beverly Brooks Thompson.

Foil asked for a recount of all votes, but then resubmitted his request to ask only for a recount of absentee paper ballots. The recount is expected Thursday.