Recount requested in contested SH-26 precinct

A hearing will be held on Dec. 1 to determine whether votes from the Pine Valley precinct in the 26th state House district should be recounted after Hardin County Clerk Kenny Tabb officially requested a recount this week amid continued questions about results in the race between Mike Weaver (D-Elizabethtown) and state Rep. Tim Moore (R-Elizabethtown).
 
Tabb's filing with the Hardin Circuit Court claims the Pine Valley precinct "suffered an administrative or clerical error" on Election Day.
 
The initial tally in the 26th District found Moore with a 108 vote lead over Weaver. After a recanvass requested by the Weaver camp was completed, Moore  held the same lead.
 
Shortly after that recanvass, the Weaver campaign went public with allegations that votes in the Pine Valley precinct were handled in violation of state law  - specifically arguing one malfunctioning machine there was opened and ballots from it were scanned into a second machine, when they should have remained  locked in the first machine until polls closed.
 
The recount, however, was requested on different grounds. Tabb told the Elizabethtown News-Enterprise his request was "referring to a reading of the total number of votes cast on the machine that replaced the malfunctioning one."
 
Weaver's camp appears to not be satisfied with this request on the grounds that the recount does not take into question the potential violation of law -  the grievance Weaver cites when challenging the vote count in Pine Valley.

 The Weaver campaign already announced it intended to  contest the election before the Democratically-controlled state House of Representatives.

 For his part, Moore lauded Tabb - a Democrat - for bringing the matter before  the court.

 "I would like to commend the Hardin County Clerk,Kenneth Tabb, for restoring sense of level-headedness to the election process in the 26th District," said Moore in a written statement. "I am confident that his actions will help free this matter from partisan, political rhetoric and allow for an unbiased, methodical examination of the facts and the outcome."
 
Moore also said he was "confident" the initial results of the election "should  - and will - stand."

The 2009 legislative session begins in Kentucky on January 6.