South Carolina election officials will meet Tuesday morning to certify the state's 2026 midterm results and likely order recounts for three contests that includes the 2nd Congressional District race.
The State Election Commission said the state board will meet at 9 a.m. to certify state-level results. Any needed recounts will be decided then, with recounts starting at 10 a.m.
A race recount is required if the margin between the winning candidate and the other candidate is 1% or less of the total votes cast.
Three races would require recounts, according to unofficial results:
- 2nd Congressional District race between incumbent Republican Congressman Joe Wilson and Democrat Zyon Khalifa
- S.C. House District 27 in Greenville County between Republican Rep. David Vaughan and Democrat John MacCarthy
- S.C. House District 89 in Lexington County between Republican Rep. Micah Caskey and Democrat Joe Madge
After the recount, the State Board of Canvassers will meet again to recount the results.
In the case of the 2nd District, Wilson, whose son Republican Attorney General Alan Wilson was elected governor last Tuesday, holds a lead of 49.8% to Khalifa's 48.8%.
The 2nd District covers parts of Aiken, Barnwell, Lexington, Orangeburg and Richland counties. Khalifa won Orangeburg and Richland counties.
"We challenged a 25-year incumbent in a district widely considered safely Republican, and the voters have made their voices heard," Khalifa posted to his Facebook. "This election is not over. Every vote matters, and every vote deserves to be counted accurately."
Down ballot, Vaughan leads the House District 27 race with a small lead of 50% to MacCarthy's nearly 49.9% — a difference of 38 votes.
And in House District 89, unofficial results show Madge flipped the Republican-held seat with 50.3% of the vote to outgoing House Majority Leader Caskey's 49.6% — a difference of 107 votes.
"As you may have seen, last night's election results haven’t gone as we’d hoped. It looks like we’re about 101 votes short. With the margin being inside of 1%, state law requires a recount," Caskey wrote on social media Nov. 4. "To be honest with you, there isn’t much reason to expect a change. I’m proud of the work I’ve done on election integrity in the General Assembly and we all have every reason to expect the final results to be exactly what the Election Commission says they are."
