Alabama's automatic recount laws don't apply in primaries, attorney general confirms

Alabama Attorney General Troy King issued an opinion today saying that state laws governing an automatic recount of votes in a tight election "are not applicable in a primary election."

The opinion gives legal weight to the guidelines Alabama Secretary of State Beth Chapman issued last week governing a possible recount in the GOP race for governor. Chapman's guidelines require a challenger who requests a recount to pay for it -- a cost GOP officials have put at between $300,000 and $600,000.

Last week's Republican primary for governor resulted in a runoff between first place finisher Bradley Byrne and either Robert Bentley or Tim James. Bentley finished just more than 200 votes ahead of James for second place, pending a final vote count, which Republican Party leaders are due to announce later today.

Anticipating that he will remain in third place, James said in an e-mail to supporters Monday night that he would request a recount of Tuesday's vote.

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2010/06/alabamas_automatic_recount_law.html