Guilford elections director rejects Berger ballot error claims in Senate race

Guilford County elections director Charlie Collicutt told state elections officials that it was “highly unlikely” eligible voters in Phil Berger’s Senate District 26 protest were handed the wrong ballot, pushing back on a claim that had fueled fresh questions about ballot handling after the razor-thin Republican primary.

Berger, the longtime state Senate leader, filed the protest after the March 3, 2026 primary and alleged that eight Guilford County voters eligible for the District 26 race did not receive ballots that included that contest. In a memo sent Friday to Guilford and state elections board members and staff, Collicutt said the county’s records did not support that theory. He noted that Guilford County contains multiple North Carolina Senate districts, meaning some ballots did include the District 26 race while others did not.

Collicutt also described the county’s safeguards at early voting sites, saying laptop computers and barcode scanners matched each voter’s Authorization to Vote with the correct ballot style before a ballot was issued. During the canvass period, he said, he reviewed the county’s early voting management system to determine how many voters should have received a District 26 ballot. The county’s election records, as Collicutt laid them out, were meant to show that ballot style selection followed the voter’s district, not a blanket ballot assignment.

The dispute sits inside a race decided by 23 votes. After provisional ballots were counted, Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page led Berger 13,135 to 13,112. A machine recount in Guilford and Rockingham counties did not change that margin, and Berger later conceded on March 24 after a partial hand recount also failed to alter the result. Even so, Berger’s Guilford protest was allowed to move forward after the Guilford County Board of Elections found probable cause and set a hearing for April 6.

Rockingham County officials also found probable cause on three separate Berger protests and scheduled a hearing for March 27. Page’s campaign and allied officials rejected Berger’s allegations, saying the claims were unfounded and that at least one person contacted by Berger’s team did not even live in Senate District 26. For Guilford officials, the record now on the table points to a narrow race, a close review and no documented ballot failure that changed who voted or how the election was counted.