After the first day of the recount in Virginia’s election for attorney general, Democrat Mark R. Herring appeared to have widened his narrow lead over Republican Mark D. Obenshain with a net gain of 91 votes in Fairfax County, officials said.
The preliminary results injected another round of uncertainty into a race that Obenshain led on election night but that swung to Herring during the subsequent topsy-turvy days when election officials canvassed the tallies and discovered numerous errors.
Volunteers labored away in three jurisdictions where recounting began Monday in the closest statewide election in Virginia history. While most of the state will start counting Tuesday, Fairfax started Monday because of its large size — and Alexandria and Chesapeake did so because their voting equipment requires them to recount ballots by hand.
More than 2.2 million people cast votes in the down-to-the-wire election, which led to canvasses and some controversy before the State Board of Elections declared Herring the winner by just 165 votes. That tiny margin entitled Obenshain to a government-funded recount.
The recount puts more at stake than who will serve as Virginia’s next top lawyer; it will also determine whether Democrats succeed in sweeping all three statewide offices up for election last month for the first time in a generation.
Additionally, the outcome will set in motion a domino effect that could affect control of the General Assembly by forcing a special election to the state Senate, where both candidates serve. If Obenshain wins, his conservative district in Harrisonburg is likely to elect another Republican to replace him. But if Herring wins, his seat in suburban Loudoun County could be highly competitive — and a GOP win would shift Senate control to the Republicans. The House of Delegates is overwhelmingly controlled by the GOP.
The rest of the state will begin their recount today. Results should be in by the end of the week. There is also the chance that if Obenshain doesn’t like the results, he could ask the General Assembly to decide the outcome. That move might be legal but it just isn’t right.
More importantly, does it bother anyone else how many errors there are in counting ballots? There shouldn’t be this many discrepancies. It really makes one distrust the system in general. The Republicans have emphasized the need for tighter voter IDs. Perhaps we should emphase greater accuracy in counting those ballots.
Should there be a Democratic sweep, a strong message will be sent to the General Assembly. Prince William County has 8 state delegates and almost as many state senators. That number is totally absurd and represents politics, not what is best for the county. I have lost track of who carved up the county so badly but things do need to normalize.
Any chance Obenshain will win in the end?
This is good.
Herring has been declared the winner.
Democratic sweep.