Local Recount Costs Should Be Minimal
Board of Elections: McDonnell Leads Attorney General?s Race by 345

By Jessica Sabbath
The Winchester Star    21 November 2005

Electoral boards statewide will likely have to complete and pay for a vote recount in what appears to be the closest statewide election in Virginia?s history.

But the cost and headache associated with a recount are likely to be minimal locally, in part because of the switch to electronic voting machines.

According to the latest tally of unofficial returns from the Virginia State Board of Elections, Republican attorney general candidate Robert McDonnell leads Democrat R. Creigh Deeds by just 345 votes ? a .04 percent difference between the two out of 1,943,156 votes cast in the race.

Because the percentage difference between the candidates currently is less than 0.5 percent, the localities will likely bear the cost if the request is requested.

In 1989, a recount in Democratic Gov. L. Douglas Wilder?s close win over Republican J. Marshall Coleman cost the state $69,058, according to Jean Jensen, secretary for the Virginia State Board of Elections. The localities were responsible for $49,613, she said.

If the price of the recount were about the same this year, the recount in today?s dollars would cost about $111,000, Jensen said. That could mean all Virginia localities would pay about $79,745 of the recount in today?s dollars.

Any candidate in Virginia who has lost an election by less than one percent of the total votes cast can request a recount as soon as the State Board of Elections certifies its results. The board is scheduled to certify on Nov. 28.

McDonnell, a state delegate from Virginia Beach, and Deeds, a state senator from Bath County, have moved into offices in the same Richmond building to prepare for the attorney general?s job.

The morning after the Nov. 8 election, McDonnell led Deeds by more than 2,000 votes. As localities canvassed their results and rechecked vote tallies, the difference has dwindled.

After the Board of Elections certifies the results, Deeds will then have 10 days ? until Dec. 8 ? to file a request for a recount with the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond.

The Chief Judge of the Circuit Court and two judges appointed by the Virginia Supreme Court will make up the recount court. The court will decide how the votes will be recounted on each type of voting equipment used and whether the recount will take place in localities or in Richmond.

With most of its localities on electronic and optical scan machines, Virginia should mostly avoid the nightmare of counting hanging and pregnant chads that occurred in Florida after the 2000 presidential election.

For the city of Winchester and Frederick and Clarke counties, which all use electronic voting machines, the recount process should be simple.

?I think it will be a relatively painless procedure for us,? Winchester General Registrar Joyce Braithwaite said.

Under state law, Jensen said the judges on the recount court will decide whether the localities using electronic machines simply need to print out each machine?s voting tallies or whether each image of the ballot for each vote cast would need to be printed.

?The courts determine exactly how extensively they want the recount to happen,? Jensen said. ?The judges will consult with [the State Board of Elections], and we will tell them all the possibilities they have to choose from.?

Only 12 of the state?s localities did not use electronic voting machines or optical scanners as their primary voting machines in this year?s election.

The federal Help America Vote Act, the law passed in response to the Florida recount in the 2000 presidential election, requires that all localities use optical scan or electronic voting machines by the 2006 congressional election.

The new machines could mean the state?s recount is relatively simple.

In this year?s election, 94 localities used the electronic voting machines and 28 used optical scanners. Under Virginia law, both machines require that the voter printout be reprinted. Further examination of votes will only be required if the printouts aren?t clear, or by request of the court.

Nine localities in Virginia used lever machines in this month?s election and one small one used a paper ballot. Some localities used a combination of machines.

Virginia Beach used punch card machines combined with one electronic voting machine.

Jensen said the recount would likely take just a couple of days.

?We?ll wait for our orders and adhere to whatever the court says,? said Linda Hyer, secretary of the Frederick County Electoral Board.