John Matthews
WMAL.com
RICHMOND — (WMAL) In a broad sense, we know what happened at the polls in Virginia last Tuesday. Democrat Ralph Northam carried the vote for Governor by nearly nine percentage points over Republican Ed Gillespie, and Democrats picked up more than a dozen state delegate seats in a sweeping wave election.
Coming up with the exact outcome, however, remains a work in progress, and it will take several more weeks to officially put the 2017 election to bed.
Local elections boards across the state have spent the past week retabulating their vote totals and reviewing provisional ballots to decide which should be added to their official counts.
“It takes time, and part of that is just government at its best, and part of it is making sure that we’ve counted every vote that is supposed to be counted,” says Fairfax County General Registrar Cameron Sasnett, Mistakes are often found after the first unofficial results are released, because they are being tabulated by election workers – many of them volunteers – who have just spent long, exhausting days at the polls.
“You throw that at somebody who has already worked a 15-hour day, and we’re able to catch and cleanup a few minor errors, ans say, ‘ok, well that 8 that they reported was actually a zero because they weren’t looking close enough,” says Sasnett.
The results for each county are due to the State Board of Elections in Richmond by Tuesday.
Three delegate races remain too close to call and will face likely recounts.
In District 40, as of Friday, Del. Tim Hugo (R-Fairfax) lead Donte Tanner by 115 votes. In District 28, Republican Robert Thomas is ahead of Democrat Joshua Cole by 86 votes, and in District 94, Del. David Yancey (R-Newport News) is clinging to a 13 vote lead over challenger Shelly Simonds.
None of those counts is considered final, and they will not be official until the State Board of Elections certifies the race on November 20th. Only then will recounts be considered.
Under state law, candidates who lose elections by less than half a percentage point may request a recount, with the state paying the expenses. A series of judicial hearings is held to establish the timing and rules for the recount, which usually takes place in early December.
Political observers will be watching the legal proceedings closely because the political makeup of the House of Delegates hangs in the balance. Democrats have picked up 49 of the 100 seats in the House, so a flip in any one of those tight Republican-led races would level the balance of power, while a two-race flip would give Democrats control of the chamber outright. Republicans retain control of the State Senate by a 21-19 margin.
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