At the end of the day on Saturday, with Norfolk and Alexandria having weighed in, the count now stands at:
Obenshain 1,103,390
Herring 1,103,362
Obenshain leads by 28 votes
Brian Schoeneman, Secretary of the Electoral Board in Fairfax County, has extended the deadline for contesting provisional ballots from Friday at noon until Tuesday. Under the code of VA it is legal for him to do so:
va code sec. 24.2-653 The electoral board shall meet on the day following the election and determine whether each person having submitted such a provisional vote was entitled to do so as a qualified voter in the precinct in which he offered the provisional vote. If the board is unable to determine the validity of all the provisional ballots offered in the election, or has granted any voter who has offered a provisional ballot an extension to the following day as provided in subsection A, the meeting shall stand adjourned from day to day, not to exceed seven calendar days from the date of the election, until the board has determined the validity of all provisional ballots offered in the election.
My first question, does Brian’s decision open a whole can of worms for every jurisdiction in the state? Will every jurisdiction now extend the deadline for provisional ballots? My second question, why is Brian Schoeneman, who purports to be a republican, helping democrats by extending this deadline?
More on the story here and here.
More on the Fairfax Fiasco here. Only TWO people voted to change the rules in Fairfax? Wow.
It appears that Brian was wrong, before he was right. This from his twitter feed “The fact that SBE’s guidance contradicts our past practice prompted us to extend our timeline for provisionals”. (SBE is the State Board of Elections.)
Daily Kos is fully behind Brian Schoeneman’s actions in Fairfax. You know we’re in trouble when both the Daily Kos and Blue Virginia are backing the actions of Fairfax Board.
