Caledonia Senate Race Heads to Recount Wednesday
A Caledonia Senate candidate who lost by 172 votes has requested a recount of the district race.
Updated on Nov. 13, 2026 in Elections
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A judge convened a hearing Tuesday on the recount of the Caledonia Senate district race, which is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 18. The request follows a margin of about 1.6 percent between incumbent Sen. Scott Beck and a challenger, who is identified in this story only as a Caledonia Senate candidate.
Why it matters
State law allows a Senate candidate who loses by less than 2 percent to seek a recount, giving Vermont voters in the district a second, machine-based tally of more than 10,700 ballots cast in the race. The process will show whether the original count holds in a contest decided by a narrow margin.
The margin between Beck and the challenger is about 1.6 percent, below the 2 percent threshold that state law sets for requesting a recount of more than 10,700 ballots. The recount will be run on machines and will not yet show whether the outcome of the original count is accurate.
The players
Scott Beck
Beck is a Vermont state senator who holds the Caledonia Senate seat and is the incumbent in the disputed race.
Michael Harris
Harris is a Vermont judge who convened the hearing on the recount of the Caledonia Senate district race.
The details
Each candidate will have 11 people on the recount committee, but the candidates themselves will not attend. All ballots will pass through one of two tabulators provided by the town of Lyndon, which is outside the Caledonia Senate District, and the machines will be programmed so that only the Senate race is checked. Clerks will deliver the ballots and voter checklists to the court by Tuesday.
Timeline
Election day, the prior week: the challenger came up 172 votes short.
Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2026: Judge Michael Harris convened the recount hearing in St. Johnsbury.
Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2026: The Senate race recount is scheduled to take place.
Political Context
The recount request rests on Vermont's rule allowing a Senate candidate who loses by less than 2 percent to seek a recount, and the 1.6 percent margin here falls within that limit. Only three towns in the district had their ballots counted by hand, so the machine-based recount will be the first full machine check of the race.
Voters in the Caledonia Senate district will learn whether the original count stands when the recount concludes on Nov. 18. The outcome determines who represents the district in the Senate, so the result affects every resident in the 12 towns that make up the district.
The takeaway
Close races depend on careful counting, and a recount is the mechanism Vermont law provides to confirm a result when the margin is narrow. Readers following the Caledonia race should watch the Nov. 18 recount outcome as the definitive check on the original tally.
What happens next
The Senate race recount is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2026, when ballots will be run through the tabulators in the presence of the recount committees.
Further reading
For more on how close contests are decided, see Elections coverage across Vermont.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Caledonian Record.
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