Brent VanNorman’s mayoral campaign issued a brief statement Thursday evening indicating that it would seek a recount in the August 27th Tulsa mayoral election.

VanNorman finished “just a few hundred votes behind Monroe Nichols and Karen Keith, who advanced to a runoff,” the statement reads in part. “Despite the close overall numbers, Brent VanNorman won the most precincts of the top three finishers--69 precincts, compared to Monroe Nichols’ 49 and Karen Keith’s 30. Given this strong showing and the unprecedented closeness of the results, there has been a strong groundswell of support from Tulsans encouraging the campaign to ask for a manual recount.”

Asked for a response, State Representative Monroe Nichols told KRMG “I’m proud of our campaign and how we performed on Tuesday. I have every confidence in the results and that they will once again be validated. While I do not believe a recount to be in any way necessary, I have no issue with Mr. VanNorman’s request.”

County Commissioner Karen Keith also responded, saying “I respect Brent VanNorman and it is his right to spend $12,000 for a recount if he chooses, but I strongly believe the results will be exactly the same. I am proud to live in Oklahoma where our elections are safe and secure thanks to great election board staff and poll workers.”

According to unofficial results from the Oklahoma Election Board, Nichols received 18,729 votes, Keith 18,457, and VanNorman 18,019.

The number of precincts won is immaterial.

The State of Oklahoma regularly validates vote totals with manual recounts of randomly chosen precincts.

In a release sent to KRMG earlier this week, the election board stated: “On Monday, State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax announced that post-election audits conducted following Oklahoma’s June Primary Elections confirmed the accuracy of the state’s voting system with a 100% match of the certified election results.”

According to that same news release, “Following the June 18 Primary Elections, (Oklahoma State Election Board Secretary Paul) Ziriax directed 76 of 77 counties to conduct manual tabulation audits of ballots in randomly-selected races across the state. The audits were open to the public and included Election Day precincts, in-person absentee ballots and mail absentee ballots. (Ziriax exempted Carter County from the audit requirement because the county election board had just completed a countywide, candidate-requested recount of a sheriff’s primary. The recount exactly matched the unofficial results in that race. Details are included in the audit report.)”

In VanNorman’s statement, which bears the headline “Trust but Verify,” the former candidate states “This decision isn’t about challenging the process but about reinforcing confidence in it. We trust in the process, and we want to verify the results to ensure full confidence in this election.”