Today is the day that the Virginia Board of Elections is scheduled to certify the results of the 2013 attorney general race results. All indications are that Democrat Mark Herring will be certified as the winner and it is expected that extremist GOP candidate Mark Obenshain will demand a recount. There is little precedent for recounts reversing an election outcome, but some fear a recount is the first step towards Obenshain seeking to throw the election into the General Assembly where the GOP members of the legislature could overthrow the popular vote. The Richmond Times Dispatch has details:
The two candidates for attorney general are gearing up for a recount in the closest statewide contest in modern Virginia history, pending today’s meeting in which the State Board of Elections will certify the results.
State Sen. Mark R. Herring, the Democratic candidate, maintains a 165-vote lead over his Republican opponent, state Sen. Mark D. Obenshain — that’s about 0.007 percent of more than 2.2 million votes cast statewide — following extensive canvassing in several localities.
If a candidate is within one-half of a percentage point, the state will pay for a recount. If the margin is between one-half of a percentage point and 1 percentage point, a candidate can urge a recount at his own expense.
Charles E. Judd, chairman of the elections board, expects a recount. “We’re probably looking at the middle of December. It will be a long day for some localities,” Judd said Friday.
At 9 a.m. today, the board will review the election results provided by the local electoral boards.
Confident that he’ll maintain his lead, Herring declared victory two weeks ago. Obenshain, however, has repeatedly pointed out that the race is far from over and that the numbers could still turn in his favor during the state canvass or a recount. Both candidates have named transition teams.
Herring campaign lawyer Marc Elias, who worked on the Minnesota recount, told reporters in a call last week that he wouldn’t expect, based on history, a lot of movement in the vote totals during the state canvass that will be certified today.
“Obviously, Senator Obenshain will have a choice to make about whether to bring the people of Virginia through a recount,” Elias said. “Those of you who have seen past recounts in Virginia know they do not tend to change the results,” he said.
During a recount, all Scantron forms are run again and provisional and absentee ballots are recounted. Electronic receipts are re-tallied and re-added — all on one day. A law passed after the 2005 contest for attorney general requires that all paper ballots have to be rescanned or recounted. Deeds sponsored the bill.
If neither the state canvass nor a recount swings the vote count in his favor, Obenshain has one last chance to challenge the election. He could ask a joint session of the General Assembly — which is dominated by Republicans — to reverse the results through a rarely used provision in state law called a contest.
Under state law, grounds for a contest include objections to “the conduct or results of the election accompanied by specific allegations which, if proven true, would have a probable impact on the outcome of the election.”
Logan, Obenshain’s spokesman, did not comment when asked Friday if the Republican would consider contesting the election.
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