County elections officials are set to kick off a mandated recount from this month’s election due to a narrow margin for a seat on the Commonwealth Court.

According to the Department of State, Stacy Wallace secured one of two available seats on the bench outright.

“Lori A. Dumas (D) and Drew Crompton (R), the second- and third-place finishers respectively, have vote totals within the one-half of one percent margin that triggers a mandatory recount under state law,” a DoS statement explained.

State-wide elections returns show Wallace with 26.57 percent (1,351,842 votes). Dumas is currently second with 25.4 percent (1,293,254 votes) with Crompton third with 25 percent (1,272,558 votes).

Wallace carried Warren County with 5,278 votes according to county elections data with Crompton (4,920) coming in second and Dumas (2,417) third. Wallace and Crompton are Republicans while Dumas is a Democrat.

A second Democrat, David Spurgeon, finished fourth in both Warren County and the state.

A statement from the Warren County Board of Elections details that the count here will commence Thursday at 9 a.m. at the courthouse.

“This recount is not due to faulty equipment or inaccurate results but was mandated by election law,” the board’s statement said. “This recount will not affect any local races and only affect the Judge of the Commonwealth Court.”

According to the Department of State, this is the fifth time the automatic recount provision has been triggered since the provision was made law in 2004.

The first two were for judicial elections — 2009 on the Superior Court and 2011 on the Commonwealth Court — and affirmed the initial result. In the other three instances — 2010 Democratic primary for lieutenant governor and 2017 and 2019 in Superior Court races — the trailing candidate waived their right to the recount.

The Department of State estimates that the recount will cost at least $1.3 million of taxpayer funds and explained that the Commonwealth Court is an intermediate appellate court that primarily handles matters involving state and local governments.