A Virginia Recount Would Not Come Soon By JOHN O’NEILPublished:...

A Virginia Recount Would Not Come Soon


By JOHN O’NEIL
Published: November 8, 2006
Virginia’s election laws allow an apparent loser to request a recount if a contest’s margin is less than 1 percent — and the margin in the preliminary results of the state’s Senate election stood this morning at about one-third of 1 percent.

While a recount seems likely, though, if it comes it will not come quickly.

According to a statement issued this month by the state’s Board of Elections, no request for a recount may be filed until the vote is certified, which is scheduled to happen this year on Nov. 27th.

After certification, a losing candidate has 10 days to file a recount request in the state courts. The petition will be considered by a panel made up of the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court in Richmond and two judges appointed by the Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court. Those judges then set out guidelines for conducting the recount.

The costs of a recount are borne by the counties and cities conducting the review if the apparent margin of victory from the original count is less than one half of 1 percent, or if the candidate requesting the recount is ultimately declared the winner; otherwise the candidate must pay the cost.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting this morning, Jim Webb, the Democratic challenger, led Senator George Allen, a Republican, by less than 8,000 votes out of more than 2.3 million cast.

Last year, a recount involving the race for state attorney general did not begin until Dec. 20th. The margin in that election was the closest in a statewide race in modern Virginia history, with Bob McDonnell, the Republican incumbent, leading his Democratic opponent, Creigh Deeds, by only 323 votes of more than 1.9 million cast.

Mr. Deeds conceded defeat on Dec. 21 after preliminary figures in the recount showed that he would not make up the difference.

In Montana, the Senate race between the Republican incumbent, Conrad Burns, and Jon Tester, a Democrat, also remained close this morning, with Mr. Tester leading by about 1,600 votes as late returns trickled in.

But that margin amounted to a gap of about half a percent — not enough, if it holds up, to give Mr. Burns the legal right to request a recount. Montana law provides for recounts only in races with a margin of one-quarter of 1 percent or less.

Both races were complicated by the presence of third-party candidates who drew more votes than the margin separating the two major-party candidates.

In Virginia, Glenda Parker of the Independent Green Party had slightly more than 1 percent of the vote this morning. Ms. Parker, a former Pentagon budget analyst, had no affiliation with the national Green Party. She ran on two issues, calling for cuts in the federal deficit and the construction of a high-speed rail network to cut dependence on oil.

Late in the campaign, when she was attracting about 2 percent support in opinion surveys, she considered dropping out and endorsing either Mr. Webb or Mr. Allen, but then changed her mind.

In Montana, Stan Jones, running as a Libertarian, had 2.6 percent of the vote this morning.