Finney seeks recount in 8th District Senate race
By Robert Norrisof The Daily Times Staff
Originally published: August 11. 2008 4:25PM
Last modified: August 11. 2008 4:32PM
State Sen. Raymond Finney filed a petition for a recount of Sevier County votes in Thursday’s Republican primary for the 8th District Senate seat.
In a tight race, State Rep. Doug Overbey, who holds the 20th District House seat, outpolled Finney 10,175 (48.0 percent) to 10,036 (47.4 percent) in the primary to pick the GOP candidate for the general election in November, according to the state’s vote tally.
The 8th Senate District is made up of Blount and Sevier counties.
Finney carried Blount County 6,918 to 5,722. But Sevier County voters put Overbey on top, casting 4,453 ballots for the state representative and 3,118 for the senator. Jim Bishop of Sevier County received 977 (4.6 percent).
After the unofficial votes were announced Thursday night, Finney said he would request a recount because of voting irregularities in Sevier County.
On Monday, he said he had already acted on that request.
“I have filed a petition for recount,” Finney said.
He sent a letter by certified mail on Saturday to Robin Smith, chairwoman of the Tennessee Republican Party.
Smith said her office received the letter Monday afternoon requesting a recount of ballots in Sevier County. The petition was forwarded to Brook Thompson, Tennessee administrator of elections. The administrator’s office will instruct Finney as to what a recount would entail and how much money it would cost him to proceed.
After receiving that information, if Finney decides to continue, the Tennessee Republican Party will appoint a subcommittee to consider the matter, Smith said. The subcommittee will make a recommendation to the party’s executive committee, which will vote on whether to authorize a recount.
“There are a number of irregularities in Sevier County,” Finney said Monday.
He declined to specify those irregularities except to say they all happened in Sevier County. “We had several issues that were of concern to me.”
But not in Blount County.
“No one had any complaints to me about Blount County voting.”
He did question why the “results were so opposite from each other” in the two counties while “the issues were similar in both counties.”
He said the state Republican Party is not obligated to do a recount, but he believes it warrants checking out.
“Maybe everything’s fine. I don’t know,” Finney said.
We'll have more details as they become available or in Tuesday's print edition of The Daily Times