Another election day, another contested election. Does this seem to be happening more lately?
In the 2018 election, both Florida's and Georgia's gubernatorial races were called into question by Democratic challengers who trailed in final tallies. They dragged things out unnecessarily for quite a while. Now eyes are on Kentucky for a similar situation.
Republican Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin and Democrat Attorney General Andy Beshear ran a close race. How close? The difference was around 5,000 votes, with the Democrat coming out ahead. (Apparently.) That's a narrow race in a state with 4.5 million people in it.
Gov. Bevin has refused to concede, just as Stacey Abrams did in Georgia and Bill Nelson did in Florida back in 2018. Sometimes races are close. But unless there are specific runoff laws or clearly mysterious circumstances that suggest something went wrong on election night (losing to your opponent doesn't count), a respectable person admits defeat. An honorable one does so gracefully. Recounts rarely accomplish anything but a waste of resources.
In 2018, northwest Arkansas saw a couple of close House GOP primary races--in particular, for state Rep. Jana Della Rosa and state Rep. Dan Douglas. Each primary came down to a handful of votes, three for Rep. Della Rosa and 12 for Rep. Douglas. For the record, the subsequent recounts didn't change any results.
In the case of Mr. Bevin and Mr. Beshear, the chasm is a bit wider than three votes. But there doesn't seem to be much evidence anything went wrong with the counting or voting process.
Even so, Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers threw some unnecessary drama into the race by saying the legislature could decide the race, the Louisville Courier Journal reported. Here's more from the paper:
"Stivers said he thought Bevin's speech declining to concede to Beshear was 'appropriate.' He said he believes most of the votes that went to Libertarian John Hicks, who received about 2 percent of the total vote, would have gone to Bevin and made him the clear winner. A candidate can file a formal election contest with the state legislature, but it must be filed within 30 days of the last action by the state board of elections. The state board is scheduled to certify the results of the race for governor on Nov. 21 this year."
There's a pretty big problem with this line of reasoning. Spoiler candidates aren't anything new. Whether you blame Ross Perot for Bill Clinton or John Hicks for Kentucky, third-party candidates can't be dismissed. And second-place finishers can't negate the third-place vote.
Blaming the Libertarian voters for a Republican loss is bad form. It shows poor sportsmanship.
Voters in the Bluegrass State have spoken. It's time to honor their voices.
Editorial on 11/12/2019