5th district is first on many minds

By Karen McNew
WSLS10 Anchor
Published: November 5, 2008

Clearly some of the most exciting election results have been those that keep changing now more than 24 hours after the polls have closed… I live in the 5th district so I was watching not only as a reporter but as a resident who voted in that election.

With our continuing election coverage we were constantly updating our website and providing brief updates throughout the evening on Channel 10 and that race started out as “too close to call”  and I kept expecting that it would all of the sudden become clear who the winner was but… not so much… and now it is a back and forth “see saw” as it was described earlier… first Goode was called the winner by the Associated Press… we did not go with that because it was still so close… then Perriello declared himself the winner based on information he was given at the time… and all throughout the day the results have been at times separated by only a few votes.. talk about every one of them counting…

Speaking of counting that is what registrars all over the 5th district have been doing today… not a recount but sort of a double check of the results they already have… I call the registrars in three different places.. Danville.. Franklin County and Albermarle County.. I haven’t heard back from the last two (I’m sure they are busy) but Peggy Petty is the Danville Registrar and tells me that they had 6 write in votes and more people observing the provisional ballot counting than ever… in case you are interested the write ins were for McCain, Jason, E. Linwood Wright, Leonard W. Reidel Jr… and two mail in ballots came in with the write in box checked but no name listed… those six votes could potentially be the difference in this election… or the votes that people “intended” to cast but never got around to it…

As Jay and Dr. Bob have said a re-count is likely inevitable… the losing candidate has to request it in Virginia.. our state doesn’t do it automatically… When I talked with the State Board of Elections today I was told that the votes have to be certified by November 24th and then the losing candidate has 10 days to request a recount… anyone think that request is already in hand?  The unanswered question remains whose…