Thursday, November 13, 2008
Close race in 5th draws spotlight
Officials say the ever-changing vote totals are a normal part of the canvassing process.
Multimedia and results
Previous coverage
- Perriello declares victory
- Perriello broadens lead over Goode in 5th House District vote tally
- Goode, Perriello still in tight race
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A national spotlight is on Virginia's 5th Congressional District as the official outcome is awaited in the close election between U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Rocky Mount, and Democratic challenger Tom Perriello. It's one of just a few U.S. House and Senate races across the country that face recounts.
Perriello holds a 745-vote lead as of Wednesday. He declared victory last week and said he is planning to head to orientation for new Congress members next week, a move Goode called premature.
Not only is the election in the 5th District close, but vote totals jumped around Election Day and the days following, with Goode and Perriello swapping leads at least twice each. The situation is extending what has come to be a tense and testy race. Perriello, for instance, picked up hundreds of votes after the polls closed through changes made in precincts in his home area of Charlottesville and Albemarle County.
Goode maintains reporting irregularities have placed doubts over the final numbers, and he's waiting for the scheduled state certification of the vote on Nov. 24 before deciding whether he will ask for a recount -- a process which he will be entitled to assuming the vote stays as it is. Goode could also potentially contest the election under Virginia law, which is a different proceeding than a recount.
But when it comes to current vote count process in the 5th District, are the slew of changes recorded by the state board of elections since the polls closed last week all that uncommon?
According to the board of elections, the changes are part of the normal process, which includes a canvass of vote totals by registrars in the localities that make up the district -- which stretches from Charlottesville down through Southside to Franklin County.
"The canvass process is designed to ensure the accuracy of elections, and all results are unofficial until they are certified," said Susan Pollard, director of communications for the state board of elections "The numbers are going to change until they're certified. ... The fact that the numbers change in the vote totals means the canvass process works."
The canvassing process starts the morning after the election, when provisional ballots are reviewed, vote summaries from each precinct are collected and the votes are certified.
Vote totals were changed in all 122 races in the state, including everything from the presidential and congressional races to mayoral races and referendums.
Even uncontested races, like that of the 3rd Congressional District, where U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Newport News, ran unopposed, the state board has logged 229 changes since last week's election. In the 5th District, there have been 217 changes logged as of Wednesday.
In the 5th District, as in the other races, reasons for changes to the vote totals vary.
A majority of the changes are the addition of absentee and provisional ballots, routine changes made during the canvassing process when they're certified by the local electoral boards.
Other changes were less routine and more noticeable.
In Charlottesville, voters were allowed to choose between electronic and paper ballots for the first time.
On election night, poll workers called in numbers from the electronic machines, but not the paper ballots, said a spokeswoman from the Charlottesville registrar's office.
When those ballots hit the vote totals, they boosted Perriello into the lead.
In Danville, a computer glitch shut the system down on election night and changed vote totals already entered.
That event also gave Perriello a boost in votes, but was corrected the next day.
Other changes came as corrections to typos and incorrect information were reported from the precincts on election night, according to the state board's Web site.
"Even with the best training, even with planning, sometimes these occur," Pollard said. "But, again, that's why the canvassing process is there."
While the state has always made results available online, last year was the first time the change history was included, tracking the changes made by each locality.
Other than this being a close race, a lack of understanding about the canvassing process could add to people's confusion, Pollard said.
Still, Goode and his campaign staff have been keeping a watchful eye on the changes.
The Goode campaign says it recognizes that changes are a part of the canvassing process.
"Vote totals change in every election, every year. This is not unique," said Mike Brown, Goode's canvass coordinator. "Usually the margins are larger and people see that mistakes won't effect the outcome. In this case, it does matter."
Representatives have been present at every canvass and are waiting on two counties to finish as of Wednesday: Perriello's home of Albemarle, as well as Brunswick.
The last time an incumbent U.S. representative in the western half of Virginia was ousted was in 1982 when Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, beat Republican William Wampler. That race ended in a recount. A three-judge panel declared Boucher the winner by 1,218 votes a little more than a month after that election.
Meanwhile, the count goes on in the 5th District, the district of Thomas Jefferson, who had to deal with few close elections of his own.
"With all the imperfections of our present government, it is without comparison the best existing, or that ever did exist," Jefferson once said.
