In a conference room at the Fairfax County Government Center yesterday, election officials pored over long rolls of computer printouts listing votes from Tuesday's election. They examined paper ballots, too, and recalculated basic math.
Behind them, about a dozen Democratic and Republican loyalists witnessed the progress, paying particular attention to votes recorded for Sen. R. Creigh Deeds (Bath), the Democratic candidate for attorney general, and his GOP opponent, Del. Robert F. "Bob" McDonnell (Virginia Beach).
Two days after the election in Virginia, there was still no clear winner in the race to determine who will be the state's top lawyer--a contest that is the closest statewide race in memory -- and both sides are monitoring carefully as local election officials across the state check and double-check the tallies.
Last night, McDonnell was ahead by 947 votes out of more than 1.9 million.
McDonnell has declared victory. The Deeds campaign maintains that the race is too close to call and is waiting for the Virginia State Board of Elections to certify the results Nov. 28. Both men have put together transition teams.
"As we've been saying all along, this thing is tight as a tick as we need to make sure every vote is counted," said Mark Bergman, a spokesman for a team of lawyers that is assisting Deeds. "Bob McDonnell doesn't get to choose who the next AG of Virginia is. The people of Virginia do."
About noon yesterday, McDonnell was leading by 1,520 votes of about 1.9 million cast. By dinnertime, McDonnell remained ahead, but 960 votes separated the candidates. It was down to the 947 count by early evening.
Jean Jensen, State Board of Elections secretary, said yesterday that no major problems have been discovered, but occasionally weary elections officers make mistakes when recording vote counts late at night, or other errors occur. The point of the canvass, she said, is to find and correct any mistakes.
"We have over 2,200 polling places, so that's a lot of information," Jen sen said. "You can have change of three votes here and 27 here. It starts to add up."
For example, Fairfax County election officials said they discovered that votes cast on one machine were not included in the unofficial tally sent to the state Tuesday night. As a result, votes cast by about 200 people were not initially counted.
Under Virginia law, the loser may request a recount within 10 days after the state board certifies the results. A three-judge panel would oversee the efforts. A final count could take weeks.
If a recount is held, it would be only the second time in a Virginia statewide election. After the 1989 gubernatorial election, a recount confirmed Democrat L. Douglas Wilder's victory over J. Marshall Coleman.
