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Accounting the Count: The Va. AG race is still in play
Author: Raine    Date: 11/08/2013 14:07:39

While a recount would certainly be expected anyway, it appears as tho we have a case of missing votes in Fairfax County, Virginia. This is a rather big deal.
The county keeps track of how many voters request absentee ballots as well as the number who actually turn them in. In the 10th District, 88 percent of voters who requested a ballot actually voted, while 86 percent did so in the 11th District.

But in the 8th District, the state board shows that only 50 percent of those who requested ballots — 4,168 out of 8,363 requests — actually cast ballots, a response rate not only lower than the other portions of Fairfax County, but lower than any other congressional district in the state, according to the Connolly campaign. (snip)

It’s unclear why those two numbers are different, or whether a recording error occurred when Fairfax reported its numbers or when the state board recorded them. The discrepancy in those two numbers was first pointed out on Twitter late Thursday by Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report.
Brad Friedman took note of this article as well and has more information:
"The more I look at the data, the totality of the evidence points towards the likelihood that there are [approximately] 3,000 untallied Fairfax Co. votes," tweeted Dave Wasserman, political analyst at the Cook Political Report, tonight. He's been going over the state's reported numbers with a fine tooth comb --- and a publicly crowd-sourced Google spreadsheet --- since Election Night.

"And if there are indeed [approximately] 3,000 missing Fairfax #VA08 absentee votes, that'd almost certainly be the miracle Herring (D) needs to pull ahead," he continued. "What a complete reversal of fortune in #VAAG race in just the last few hours."

"The 2,500-3,000 missing votes happen to be from some of the most Democratic precincts in Fairfax County. Big margin for Herring," tweeted Ben Tribbett tonight, who Wasserman lauded on Twitter. "No one knows Fairfax politics more intimately than" him, he said.

"It appears to me there is solid evidence of missing votes," Tribbet observed, before later adding that he spoke tonight to the Republican election board member Schoeneman "and explained the issue to him." Tribbet added: "Glad to have a Republican on Elec-Board making sure every vote counts."
Here is a link to the spreadsheet that Dave Wasserman is crowd sourcing. Those numbers may change through out the day. [Update: About 9 o'clock this morning Wasserman tweeted: Herring likely will take 500-1,000 vote lead soon. He's coined this the #7CornersSurprise.

I for one am very glad we have optical scanners in this area of the state. There are still concerns, to be sure but this is heading in the right direction. AccuVote™ is the approved optical voting machine in Fairfax county. Let's hope that every ballot is found and accounted for. Right now, I hold out hope that they will. Mr. Schoeneman was up late last dealing with this. That he is communicating with Democratic strategist Benjamin Tribbet and Cook Political Report Editor David Wasserman is a very good thing.


and
Raine
 

68 comments (Latest Comment: 11/09/2013 01:28:49 by Raine)
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