Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times

Tom Perriello speaks to campaign volunteers and others at the Bedford Democratic headquarters Wednesday afternoon. Perriello and his incumbent opponent are locked in a race that is still too close to call and may be eligible for a recount.

Marcus Yam | The Roanoke Times

Virgil Goode (right forefront) is joined by supporters Tuesday at Smith Mountain Lake after an unofficial announcement said he had taken the final lead toward his congressional re-election. As it turned out, yet-to-be-counted votes have swung the race wildly.

Related

The latest from our Blue Ridge Caucus politics blog

• House passes “personhood” and abortion ultrasound bill
• Va. House rejects bill to restrict local taxing power

From today's paper

• 'Personhood' bill set for vote today
• Eminent domain bill passes in Virginia Senate
• General Assembly Notebook: House advances capital punishment bill
• Follow state and local political coverage from The Roanoke Times

Multimedia and results

• Photo galleries, video, searchable municipality- and precinct-level results, Election Day analysis and an interactive map of Virginia's voting trends since 1980

Photo gallery:

• Goode, Perriello await returns

Fifth Congressional District candidate Tom Perriello saw his lead over Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Rocky Mount, grow significantly throughout the day Thursday, after a cache of previously uncounted paper ballots was discovered in the Perriello stronghold of Charlottesville.

By early evening, Perriello clung to a 648-vote lead over Goode, making an upset over the six-term incumbent congressman more and more plausible.

Remaining cautiously optimistic, the Perriello campaign is waiting until the final six counties complete their canvassing before claiming victory, said Jessica Barba, Perriello's communications director. Those canvasses could be completed as early as today.

"We feel very good that we have a little more breathing room," she said.

But that didn't stop Virginia Democratic Party Chairman Richard Cranwell from declaring the election over. He called Perriello on Thursday evening to congratulate him.

"It looks like it's all over but the shouting," Cranwell said, adding that he had been watching the numbers and can't see how Goode could make up the 600-plus vote difference.

The large boost for Perriello came from hundreds of uncounted paper ballots discovered in two precincts in Charlottesville, part of the Albemarle County native's home base. Perriello garnered more than 80 percent of the votes cast in that city.

For the first time, Charlottesville used a mixed voting system Tuesday, allowing voters to choose paper or electronic ballots.

When poll workers in the two Charlottesville precincts reported their results to the state board of elections Tuesday night, they didn't include those paper ballot totals, said Jackie Harris, a consultant with the board of elections assisting the Charlottesville registrar.

The paper ballots were certified and added to the official count Thursday afternoon, Harris said. It was unclear Thursday night exactly how many paper ballots in Charlottesville there were.

Lawyers from each campaign were on hand to witness the count, she added.

Just as Perriello wasn't declaring victory, Goode didn't appear at all ready to concede the election.

"Any declarations of winners and losers in this race is premature," Goode said in a statement. "This contest is undeniably close, the vote totals have greatly varied back and forth since election night, and the official counting process is still ongoing. It is important that we take the time for a fair and thorough process to ensure that every legitimate vote is counted. We remain optimistic that we will prevail when this process is completed."

As both candidates played a waiting game, local registrars and electoral boards continued the canvassing process under the watchful eye of volunteers and lawyers from each campaign who monitored the progress.

Provisional and absentee ballots rolled in throughout the day, causing vote totals to fluctuate.

Reasons for the fluctuating totals vary from precinct to precinct.

In Lunenburg County, one precinct didn't get counted because of a "computer glitch," Registrar Carolyn Parsons said.

In Danville, computer problems were also blamed for incorrect vote totals given to the state board of elections Tuesday night.

There have been some rare mishaps affecting vote totals, such as the Charlottesville incident, but in any election all vote totals are unofficial and can change until canvassing and certification processes are complete, Harris said.

Checking and correcting the numbers are the purpose of the canvass, said Harris, who is the former registrar of Fairfax County.