During the statewide vote canvas on Friday Mark Herring closed the gap between himself and Mark Obenshain with newly recorded votes in Fairfax and Bedford Counties. Some sources say that there are now only 120 votes separating the two candidates with Mark Obenshain still in the lead. Politico reports that Obenshain is up by 130. Friday evening Fairfax canvas observer Ben Tribbett tweeted:
UPDATED AG NUMBERS: Obenshain 1,103,335. Herring 1,103,215. 120 vote difference. 493 provisionals left in Fairfax for 2 pm vote tomorrow.
On Friday evening Fairfax County Electoral Board issued this statement:
Earlier today, we directed the staff to begin a canvass of the 8th District Central Absentee Precinct. That process continued until noon, when the board met in an open meeting with the Election Office staff who are working the canvass, representatives of the Republican and Democratic parties, representatives of the Herring and Obenshain campaigns and the general public.
During that meeting, the discussion revolved around two optical scan machine tape records, one that had been included in the results, and one that had not been included in the results. After discussion with the parties and the staff, the board directed the staff to complete the canvass and to present the results of their final investigation to us once that investigation was complete. We were notified late Friday that the staff would be prepared to present their investigation results on Saturday morning.
The board will meet again with the canvass staff and observers to hear the results of their investigation at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 9, in the Conference Center of the Fairfax County Government Center. This meeting is open to the public.
Our provisional ballot meeting will begin at 2 p.m. We anticipate concluding the investigation of the 8th District issue and the provisional ballot meeting on Saturday, Nov. 9 and the overall canvass on Sunday, Nov. 10.
The state won’t certify the results of the race until November 25. After that the losing candidate can request a recount if the margin between the candidates is within 1% of the total votes cast. At this point, that appears inevitable. The losing candidate must file to request a recount between November 26th and December 5th. We’ll be lucky to have this race completed by Christmas.
More information on the recount timeline here.
