UPDATE: 5th District race: Perriello holds on to lead

WSLS NEWS STAFF
Richmond Times Dispatch
Media General News Service

Published: November 5, 2008

Updated Friday 1:59 p.m.

Perriello’s has lead has widened by the tiniest of margins, giving him 747 votes on Goode.

Current totals timestamped at 1:40 p.m. on the State Board of Elections website are:

Perriello: 158,664 Goode: 157,917

Perriello leads Goode by 648 votes, with totals holding constant from last night. Eighteen of 22 localities have reported Canvassed numbers. Perriello’s big bump yesterday came after Charlottesville completed their canvass. Many paper ballots that hadn’t been included in the original numbers were counted. Provisional ballots aren’t impacting the race that much. Danville accepted 13 of 24 submitted provisional ballots. Of those, 11 were for Perriello, one was for Goode and one didn’t have a vote for the Congressional election.

Goode has slightly closed in on Perriello’s lead which is now 629 votes. Current totals are:

Perriello: 158,523 Goode: 157,894

One hour later, votes have again fluctuated.
Perriello now has 158,514 votes to Goode’s 157,880, giving him a 734 vote lead. Both Danville and Charlottesville have reported slight glitches in the software program the board of elections is using, but are sure that all numbers are now correct. See tomorrow’s print edition for the full story on software problems.

Another couple votes put Perriello slightly more ahead. Current totals are:

Perriello: 158,516 Goode: 157,684

One candidate finally clinched more than 50 percent of the vote. But it’s not over yet, as 10 more localities still have to report their canvasses.

Perriello in the last half hour lept to an 814 vote lead. He currently has 158,516 votes to Goode’s 157,702. Those numbers give Perriello 50.1 percent of the vote over Goode’s 49.84

Figures show that Goode is gaining on Perriello. Current totals:

Perriello: 157,521 Goode: 157,491

Updated numbers show that Goode gained one more vote, and Perriello’s lead had gone back to 52 votes. Totals are now:

Perriello: 157,460, Goode: 157,408. Those totals give Perriello 99.98 percent of the vote and Goode 99.96 percent.

by Media General News Service

Perriello’s lead has increased to 53 votes, according to the State Board of Elections’ website.

Perriello - 157,460

Goode - 157, 407

More votes may soon be added to Perriello’s tally, according to numbers posted on the blog of Charlottesville Electoral Board Chairman Rick Sincere.

Sincere wrote that Wednesday’s vote canvass in Charlottesville found that Perriello had received 15,754 votes on Tuesday and Goode received 3,715.

The State Board of Elections has not yet updated its Charlottesville tally with the changes, showing the city with 15,089 votes for Perriello and 3,592 for Goode.

If accurate, Charlottesville’s count would add 665 votes for Perriello and 123 votes for Goode, handing Perriello a net gain of 542. 

  Numbers changed again the past couple minutes as Henry County reported their canvassed numbers as well, but the lead remains the same.

Perriello now has 157,459 while Goode has 157,407.

Updated numbers on the Board of Elections website show that Perriello has marginally increased his lead to 52 votes. Perriello now has 157,457 to Goode’s 157,405 votes.

Pittsylvania County registrar Jenny Lee Saunders said they completed their canvassing last night at about 9:30 p.m. This morning’s update reflects Pittsylvania County’s canvassed numbers.

Additionally, Susan Pollard called the newspaper to report say there are actually 22 localities in the 5th District, not 21, as she had reported last night.

The Virginia State Board of Elections showed no changes between last night and this morning. Perriello held on to a razor-thin lead of 31 votes. The Associated Press is reporting is lead is slightly larger, with an 81 vote lead. Wednesday afternoon Danville regstrar Peggy Petty said the State Board of Elections would reconvene at 5 p.m. today to continue canvassing.

Now, the State Board of Elections says Tom Perriello leads with 157,455 votes to Goode’s 157,425 - a mere 30 votes.

The State Board of Elections continue to calculate votes and here are the numbers right now:

Goode:157,421 Perriello: 157,415

From InRich.com 4:12 p.m.:

Tom Perriello, the Democratic challenger seemingly defeated yesterday by incumbent U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode Jr., R-5th, by several hundred votes, told reporters today that he is not yet calling for a recount because many provisional ballots remain to be counted.

In Charlottesville, Perriello said he is confident the provisional ballots will put him over the top because they are typically cast by blacks and young voters.

Perriello said he anticipates the provisional ballots could be fully tallied today or tomorrow. The state Board of Elections could not be reached, and Perriello spokeswoman Jessica Barba said she hasn’t been told how many provisional ballots could be counted.

“I’m not sure if there are hundreds or thousands,“ she said. “We’re confident we came out on top, but we can’t pop the champagne just yet.“

—Rex Bowman

Unfortunately for anxious constituents, a representative from the State Board of Elections said that it’s possible results won’t be tabulated for another couple days. Director of Communications Susan Pollard said that all counties right now are in the process of canvassing; they will be counting every provisional ballot, collecting vote summaries from precincts, and rechecking the total number of votes cast.

Official votes (for everything, including presidential and senatorial races) aren’t considered official numbers until Nov. 24 when the Board of Elections officially certifies the results. After that, the presumptive losing candidate has 10 days to request a recount. Pollard said the candidate can request a recount when there is less than a percentage of difference between the votes. At the moment both Goode and Perriello have 49.97 percent of the vote. Any way you cut it, it’s doubtful that there will more than a one percentage point difference between the votes each candidate earned.

UPDATE: 12:51 p.m.:

The Perriello campaign has issued this statement after the Associated Press reports that Perriello is up by 119 points, in disagreement with the State Board of Elections:

“We are clearly seeing a very close election with vote totals from different counties changing rapidly, and Tom Perriello remains confident that when everyone’s vote is counted he will win this election and move ahead with his agenda for economic revival in the fifth district. Right now, our focus is on making sure every single vote is counted and every single voice is heard. The results need to be certified and there are provisional ballots that need to be considered. We are confident that people in the fifth district want change and that we are going to be successful in this election in the end.“

UPDATE: 12:15 p.m.:

According to the State Board of Elections timestamped at 11:14 a.m. Goode remains ahead by 146 votes. He said they were still waiting for all the numbers but confident.
“This is a tight election, we are pleased to be ahead,“ he said. “We are optimistic that when every ballot is in we will be prevail.“
He said his staff members as well as members of Perriello’s campaign were carefully monitoring the canvassing process. “We hope everything will be in accord with election law,“ he said, and didn’t have any reason to think it wouldn’t be. In the event he doesn’t come out ahead, he said he would evaluate what to do next. He said he believes that a candidate can request a recount if the discrepancy between the voters is less than half a percentage point. But, he said. “We’re ahead now.“

UPDATE: 10:38 a.m.:

The State Board of Elections says all 307 precincts have reported.  Virgil Goode has 157,421 votes, or 50.04 percent, the board says, while Tom Perriello has 156,975 votes, or 49.9 percent.

Original: 8:45 a.m., Wednesday:

Virgil Goode pulls ahead of Tom Perriello. The State Board of Elections reports that Goode has 157,070 votes, to Perriello’s 156,768.

Goode is now ahead by 302 votes. There is still on precinct left to report.

“With all but one reliably Republican precinct reporting, the State Board of Elections is reporting that I am leading my opponent by more than 300 votes,“ Goode said. “We have scrubbed the numbers and confirmed them with local officials and I am confident that after today’s canvassing by the individual registrars’ office this lead will be sustained. It has been a long, hard-fought campaign and I feel good about where we are right now.“

Perriello will be in Danville today at 3:30 p.m. to thank volunteers for their work.