Taxpayers to pay for 5th District recount process

By Sarah Arkin

Published: November 25, 2008

Election officials are gearing up for a tedious recount in the razor-thin 5th District race, but the results are not expected to change.

“Any recount is an uphill battle,” Congressman Virgil Goode said Monday on a conference call with reporters. “The one that’s ahead is generally favored.”

Goode officially filed a petition for a recount Tuesday afternoon in Albemarle County Circuit Court.

Democratic Congressman-elect Tom Perriello, who holds a 745-vote lead over the six-term incumbent, is confident that he’ll hold on to his victory.

“We respect Virgil Goode’s right to ask for a recount and we are confident the recount will not alter the outcome of this race,” Perriello’s communications director, Jessica Barba, said Monday in a news release.

The State Board of Elections sets the standards for the recount, including security of the voting devices and proper handling, according to spokeswoman Susan Pollard.

Pollard said once the petition is filed, however, the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court where the candidate being challenged resides has seven days to set a preliminary hearing and the rules.

The court appoints recount officials from among the officers of election who served during the election and who are appointed to represent the respective parties. In addition, the court determines where votes will be counted; whether in various localities or a central location. No provisional or absentee ballots that were deemed invalid during the canvassing process will be counted, according to the Board of Elections.

Sylvesta Jennings, a member of the Danville Electoral Board, describes the process as “verifying what we’ve already done.”

Footing the bill

Speaking on behalf of Goode’s campaign, Michael Brown said he expected a judge to order the two-day process to take place in mid-December. All the precincts of the district’s 22 localities will compile their data in a central location on the first day and bring it to Albemarle County, Perriello’s home locality, on the second.

Since the results show Perriello with a lead of less than one half of 1 percent, taxpayers will foot the bill for the process.

Pollard said it was difficult to determine what the cost would be at this point.

Brown said the Republican Party had been providing legal counsel up to this point and assumed they would continue with assistance. He wasn’t sure if Goode would be seeking other contributions to help. The Perriello campaign sent a letter to supporters seeking donations to help foot the legal council bill, as well as keep offices open during the process.

Technical and legal barriers

Vote totals after a recount usually mirror what they were after a canvass was complete, officials said, but Virginia has a couple technical and legal barriers that prevent a comprehensive recount.

Part of the problem is the use of computer touch-screen voting machines, common throughout the district, said Jeremy Epstein, a principal consultant with Cigital, a software security-consulting firm. Basically, the Direct Recording Electronic machines can only print out total number of votes cast, the same as it did on Election Day, and cannot tabulate individual votes.

“You look at the totals and hope you’re right,” he said.

Charlottesville, Martinsville and Nelson County don’t rely as heavily on the machines as the other 19 localities in the district, Epstein said. With those having been Democratic districts, Goode arguably has the most to gain from a recount there, he said.

The legal barrier is a Virginia state law prohibiting audits of votes except in cases where the winner has beaten their opponent by more than 10 percent. Most states, Epstein said, have post-election audits where they look at a fraction of the precincts by hand and match up ballot counts with machine counts. The logic, he explained, is if a random sampling of the precincts adds up, it’s likely the whole district will as well.

Another issue this year is a pending lawsuit in federal court to ensure all overseas military votes get counted. Goode said Monday it was imperative to have those votes counted.

“They’re protecting our right to vote in this country and I think they deserve the right to vote,” he said.

Goode said it was premature to think about what his legislative future will hold if Perriello is ultimately named the winner, but said if it does happen, “I will congratulate him and wish him well.”

Contact Sarah Arkin at or (434) 791-7983.