Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, who is about 1,000 votes behind the Democrat trying to unseat her in the House, is suing to stop more ballots from being counted so that they can be more closely examined to ensure they’re legal ballots, according to a lawsuit filed against Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen.
Love’s campaign wants to examine the signatures on some ballots after the campaign identified several situations where “increased transparency” has been necessary.
“We have great respect for the critical and at times, complex, ballot counting process. As we’ve spent hours observing these efforts, we’ve found a few instances where increased transparency and scrutiny are needed. Let us be clear, we are not accusing anyone of anything. Simply put, we have submitted this petition to improve the elections process,” Love’s campaign said in a statement Wednesday.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the margin between Love and her Democratic challenger Ben McAdams was 1,229 votes with 86 percent of precincts reporting results, according to the New York Times. McAdams has received 50.3 percent of the votes, while Love has received 49.7 percent.
A recount cannot be called yet because under Utah law, a recount only be requested if the margin between candidates is 0.25 percentage points or less.
