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FRANKFORT, Ky., May 24 (UPI) -- Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is petitioning officials in Kentucky to recanvass the razor-thin victory his opponent, Hillary Clinton, scored there Tuesday. Initially, Sanders said he would accept the results as reported on election night, May 17, when Clinton finished with an unofficial win by 1,924 votes out of more than 450,000 votes cast. The win was by less than a half percentage point.
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The request by Sanders would not likely have a significant effect on the results. Recanvassing the election amounts to state elections workers doing the math again by adding up the already-tabulated results from voting machines in each of the 120 counties in the state, plus absentee ballots.
A full recount would require inspecting each ballot again to ensure the original counts are accurate, a much longer process.
While it may prove unlikely, a Sanders victory in Kentucky could give his campaign a significant psychological boost. A Kentucky win would allow Sanders to say he's won the past four primaries in a row after claiming victories in Indiana, West Virginia and Oregon -- making him undefeated in the month of May, as the primary calendar nears its end and the Democratic convention gets closer.
In terms of the popular vote, the candidates finished in a virtual tie, but in the delegate allocation it was a literal tie in Kentucky. Both Clinton and Sanders scored 27 delegates, based on the results reported on election night.
Under Kentucky law, there is no threshold for election results to trigger a recount, though any candidate can petition a judge to have a recount by court order.
Two other states reported similarly close victories for Clinton the Sanders campaign did not challenge. She narrowly won the Missouri primary, where Sanders said he would not seek a recount. She also won the Iowa caucuses by less than 1 percent, though because there are no paper ballots, caucus results are difficult to challenge in court.
