The Virginia Board of Elections has certified Mark Herring to be the winner in the Attorney General’s race by 165 votes but the chairman of that board has questions about the integrity of the vote. Chairman of the Board Charles E. Judd,
“I’m concerned about the integrity of the data,” Judd said in brief remarks from the dais in the meeting room of a Capitol Square office building. “I’m concerned about the lack of uniformity, that there be no differences in any of the localities in how votes are counted.”
The Bull Elephant also voiced those concerns. Chairman Judd shares our concerns about how the voting was handled in Fairfax:
Judd, the former executive director of the Republican Party of Virginia, told reporters after the meeting that he was largely concerned about vote totals that he said shifted repeatedly during the canvass process in Fairfax County.
“The numbers were changing; ‘Whoops, we found another mistake,’ then they changed the numbers, then we find another mistake, we change the numbers,” he said.
Judd also questioned why some voters who cast provisional ballots in heavily Democratic Fairfax were given more time than voters in other jurisdictions to prove that their ballots should be counted.
Mark Obenshain now has 10 days to decide if he will ask the state for a recount.
“Margins this small are why Virginia law provides a process for a recount,” Obenshain said. “However, a decision to request a recount, even in this historically close election, is not one to be made lightly. Virginia law allows 10 days to request a recount. We will make further announcements regarding a recount well within that time, in order to ensure the closure and confidence in the results that Virginians deserve.”
Mark Obenshain also said since 2000 there have been 4 elections in the nation with vote count differences under 300 votes. In 3 of those 4 elections the outcome changed after recounts. Sounds like a recount is in order.
