The recount of the Republican primary race in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District is tentatively set for July 31, by order of Judge Claude Worrell in Goochland County Circuit Court.
Incumbent Rep. Bob Good lost the June 18 Republican primary election by 374 votes, or 49.7% of votes cast, to state Sen. John McGuire’s 50.3%.
The judge asked local election officials across the district to start preparing staff for the effort on Monday and said he would confirm the July 31 date with the other two judges who will sit as the recount court overseeing the process and, at the end, certifying the result.
He also said he would prepare a draft procedural order. Such orders detail how election officials will conduct the recount, including programming tabulating machines, transporting ballots and verifying results.
Recounts rarely change certified results, which come after multiple steps by local electoral boards to verify initial Election Day reports and checking behind them by the State Board of Elections.
Judges to be on call
The closest a recent Virginia recount came to a changed result was in 2017, when a recount in a House of Delegates race in Newport News between Republican incumbent David Yancey and Democrat Shelly Simonds saw his 10-vote lead change to her 1-vote victory before the recount court rejected a challenged ballot.
That left the race tied. Yancey returned to the House after then-chairman of the State Board of Elections James Alcorn drew Yancey’s name from a bowl, the procedure for deciding a tied race.
The recount court, comprising Worrell and two judges to be named by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia S. Bernard Goodwyn, will sit all day and possibly late into the night on July 31.
On that day, officials from across the district, which runs from Goochland, Powhatan and western Hanover counties west to Albemarle County and southwest to Pittsylvania County, will report results of their recounts.
The judges will essentially be on call in case there are disagreements about results, particularly regarding any ballots that have to be counted by hand.
Most ballots, however, will be run through the tabulating machines that tally votes, as on Election Day.
It is only write-ins, overcounts — ballots with two or more marks indicating a voter’s choice — and undercounts — with incompletely filled bubbles or misplaced markings, or simply blank ballots — that are hand counted because confusing markings mean officials have to try to determine what a voter intended.
If the local electoral board’s recount team cannot agree on the validity of any hand counted ballot, it will go to the recount court judges for a decision.
In the end, it is up to the recount court to certify results of the recount.
Recent recounts in Virginia have confirmed victories, even if they did shift relatively small numbers of vote.
Last year, a recount confirmed the reelection of Republican Del. Kim Taylor of Dinwiddie in a House district, though it narrowed her margin over Democrat Kimberly Pope Adams to 53 votes from 78.
A 2023 recount also confirmed the reelection to another eight-year term of Henrico County Circuit Court Clerk Heidi Barshinger, who defeated challenger Gray Montrose by 242 votes. Montrose picked up three votes in the recount.
In 2021, a recount netted Democrat Alex Askew 12 votes in his bid for reelection to the House, but still left him behind Republican challenger Karen Greenhalgh by 115 votes. Redistricting put them in different districts. Askew returned to the House in the 2023 election; Greenhalgh lost her bid for reelection by a 52.4% to 47.5% margin.
A 2021 recount cut the margin for Republican A.C. Cordoza from 94 votes to 64 votes in his successful challenge of Democratic Del. Martha Mugler of Hampton, while a 2017 recount gained Democrat Dawn Adams 11 votes for a 347-vote victory over Republican Manoli Loupassi in a Richmond-area House race.
Winner will face Democrat Gloria Witt
This year’s GOP primary in the 5th District pitted two conservative candidates, with former President Donald Trump’s endorsement of McGuire giving him the edge over Good, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. Trump said Good was insufficiently loyal.
Good, who has represented the district since 2021, had endorsed Ron DeSantis in the Florida governor’s short-lived bid for the presidency before backing Trump.
Good had promised he would seek a recount shortly after the State Board of Elections certified McGuire’s victory, saying he wanted to stop what he described as McGuire’s “war” against the conservative movement.
In addition to Trump’s endorsement of McGuire, the state senator had support from allies of former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy. Last October, Good was one of eight Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy.
If the recount changes the result of the election, the winner gets a certificate of election. Changes from the result certified by the State Board of Elections will be posted on the Department of Elections’ website.
When the recount is completed, the winner will face Democrat Gloria Witt, an Amherst County NAACP leader and business executive trainer, in the general election in November.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com