By TOM McLAUGHLIN
News & Record Staff
A mere 31 votes now separate Rep. Virgil Goode and Democratic challenger Tom Perriello in the Fifth District Congressional race, practically ensuring that it will take weeks before a winner is declared.
A Wednesday late afternoon update of the State Board of Elections' unofficial tally gave Perriello a slim lead of 157,456 votes to 157,425 for Goode. The Associated Press, which called the race for Goode Tuesday night before pulling back the prediction later in the evening, now says Perriello is ahead by 81 votes, 157,456 to 157,375.
If the result holds, it would mark a stunning upset for the Democratic challenger, who trailed by 34 percentage points in a SurveyUSA poll of the district in late summer. The last time Goode faced competition, in 2006, he won the Fifth District by 19 percentage points.
Neither campaign was prepared to declare victory after a rollercoaster Election Night and an anxious day Wednesday. With SBE voter totals changing almost by the hour — Wednesday began with Goode up by 445 votes, then 144 votes, then 6 votes, and finally trailing Perriello by the end of the day by 31 votes — the message from both campaigns was one of outward confidence, tinged with uncertainty.
"It's so close. We're just talking about single votes. That's why our huge focus today is making sure that every single vote counts," said Jessica Barba, spokesperson for the Perriello campaign.
Shortly after 9 a.m., with the SBE count showing Goode holding a lead of about 300 votes, the congressman issued a statement by email saying he was "confident" his narrow lead would stand. By the end of the day it was gone.
"We have scrubbed the numbers and confirmed them with local officials and I am confident that after today's canvassing by the individual registrars' office this lead will be sustained," stated Goode. "It has been a long, hard-fought campaign and I feel good about where we are right now."
Several factors contributed to the uncertainty hanging over both camps, including a significant difference between the unofficial SBE vote count and totals reported throughout the day by the Associated Press. Election officials said they have no explanation for why the AP numbers were different from the state's.
Local election boards are now going over the results to prepare a final count for the State Board of Elections, which will certify a winner on Nov. 24. At that point the loser can call for a recount, which is allowed in Virginia when the margin of victory is less than 1 percent.
Election officials across the district spent yesterday looking over voting machine tapes and log books to spot possible errors in tabulating the vote. Problems with voting machines in Danville caused one of the biggest swings early Wednesday morning when Perriello went from a 2,000 vote lead to a small deficit. Election officials traced the problem to a minor programming error which required Danville's voting data to be re-entered.
Valerie Jones, deputy secretary of the State Board of Elections, said Danville election officials assigned Nov. 5 as the date for late-arriving vote totals when all the data should have been pegged for Nov. 4, Election Day. "It caused the data to be kicked out and they had to re-enter the data," she said.
Officials also discovered an error in Lunenburg County, where a largely African-American precinct was first reported as having gone to Goode by a 60-40 percent margin. Initial reports gave Perriello 148 votes out of the precinct, but on Wednesday his share was adjusted to 448 votes. That update, plus a provisional ballot cast for Perriello in Prince Edward County, cut Goode's lead from 445 to 144 votes.
While absentee ballots have been counted, many provisional ballots have not. Individuals may cast provisional ballots when their eligibility to vote is uncertain. Individuals have the option of casting provisional ballots if they cannot produce identification at their polling places, while others cast the ballots after being tripped up by minor errors in poll books, such as misspelled names or incorrect addresses. Provisional votes are cast on paper ballots.
Jones said local officials in charge of canvassing the vote will carefully determine if provisional ballots should be counted toward the final tally. Both campaigns have brought in lawyers and posted observers at each locality in the district to oversee the process.
Jones said it will probably take until the end of the week before the canvass of the Fifth District is complete. Local election boards have five days to report final vote results to the state.
"This is an unprecedented election and I would think they would want to be very meticulous," said Jones.
In an interview with the Roanoke Times yesterday, Goode expressed concern over the counting of provisional ballots, the newspaper reported. "There's an attorney sitting in the office right now," Goode told the newspaper. "Without going into all the specifics, there's some question about the provisional ballots and whether they complied with Virginia law."
As yesterday wore on, the Perriello campaign picked up several provisional votes as ballots were approved by electoral boards across the district. Campaign officials said they were optimistic that the provisional balloting would go their way, boosting the chances that Perriello would pull out the win.
"I wouldn't think it would be that many, but when you're talking about a margin of [a few] votes obviously it could make a difference," said Christian Rickers, a consultant to Perriello's campaign.
Localities that revised their election night results yesterday included Lunenburg, Appomattox, Nelson, Greene, Buckingham, Prince Edward and Campbell counties and the city of Danville. Appomattox reported 189 Perriello votes that were overlooked in the Election Night totals, while data entry errors produced a 100-vote undercount in Nelson County and a 40-vote undercount in Greene County for Perriello.
In Mecklenburg County yesterday, Registrar Bert Carter said the local election board was looking through provisional ballots and expected to have a final count by Friday. Carter said there were only about 30 provisional ballots cast Tuesday, and the election board has determined it will count only about 10 of them, he said.
Mecklenburg went for Goode by an 8,004-6,457 margin.
Goode carried Halifax County by 53-47 percent, garnering exactly 1,000 more votes than Perriello according to the unofficial count last night; 8,494 local voters backed the incumbent while 7,494 cast ballots for Perriello. In 2006 against Democrat Al Weed, Goode won Halifax County by 28 percentage oints, a margin of 2,856 votes.
Halifax County Registrar Judy Meeler was not available for comment for this article yesterday.
For full countywide results for the congressional race, see chart above.
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