VIRGINIA BEACH
Republican Ron Villanueva held on to his 16-vote lead in the 21st District race Wednesday after local election officials reviewed most of the ballot totals. Still, Democrats and supporters of Del. Bobby Mathieson said a recount is likely.
"I don't see any way we're not going to a recount," said Ollie Bates, chairman of the Virginia Beach Democratic Party.
Mathieson and Villanueva both stayed out of the public eye and away from the Beach's voter registrar's office Wednesday. But campaign workers and attorneys hovered as city election officials counted the provisional ballots and ensured that the votes cast matched with the number of names in the poll book.
Election officials received eight provisional ballots in the 21st District and are researching to make sure those are eligible voters. Provisional ballots are used as backups mostly by returning service members or people who have lost their absentee ballots.
Officials will decide whether to accept the provisional ballots later this week when they check the counts on the absentee ballots, said Pat Harrington, the Beach's voter registrar.
Villanueva's supporters said they were confident he had won the election, since the margin of victory was twice the number of provisional ballots still left unopened.
"For all intents and purposes, this race is over," said Gary C. Byler, the Republican Party's 2nd Congressional District chairman and a lawyer. "With electronic machines, the chances of vote totals changing is miniscule."
Villanueva sent his supporters an e-mail Wednesday morning under the title of "delegate-elect."
Mathieson, however, would not concede.
"I am confident that after all the votes are counted I will be heading back to Richmond next year," he wrote in an e-mail to his backers.
Under state law, the losing candidate can request a recount as long as the vote margin is less than 1 percent of the total ballots cast. If the difference is 0.5 percent or less, the city has to pick up the tab.
In this race, the 16 votes represent a tenth of 1 percent of the vote.
Mathieson can't ask for a recount until after the vote is certified Nov. 23, said James Alcorn, Virginia State Board of Elections deputy secretary.
Any recount would probably take place in early December, Alcorn said.
Deirdre Fernandes, (757) 222-5121, deirdre.fernandes@pilotonline.com
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Ballots?
DUmOkRapZ and RePugZ are all two-faced, lying criminals. Now who won this race and who's votes really counts?
Are all ballots being counted?
I had to vote absentee because of medical reasons.
I want my vote counted!
This article seems to say that absentee ballots have not been counted. How is that possible?
Count all ballots including absentee ballots.
absentee ballots were counted
absentee ballots where counted election night and put villanueva over the top by 16 votes...your vote was counted if you got it in time..the provision ballots are votes due to incompetence...you are insistant that it is your voting place...but they can't find your name in the books...the reason it doesn't matter is because villanueva is up by 16 and there is only 8 ballots.
yuk!
calling Villanueva a republican makes me want to switch parties....even the thought nauseates me....the party should divorce him....
Oh God!
I hope Franken doesn't get wind of this and send his posse down here to help out!
ABSENTEE
Okay - A lot of news about Ron's missing x amount of meetings. I am just curious - how many meetings were held during the year? What is his percentage of attendance versus any other council member? Just curious.
RV
Ron V was nothing but a puppet on city council; a perfect candidate for any party.(lol)
remember bizzaro world?
In Bizzaro World, everything was different than in the real world. In the real world, every minority is given props for rising above the discrimination of the evil white majority. In Bizzaro World, (aka Democrat politics) we find that the "disadvantaged minority" in this case Ron V, is now evil man. Not because he is really evil man, but because his beliefs do not match those who believe in the evil white majority.
Such hypocrisy in the Democrat party:
Clarence Thomas
Condoliza Rice
Michael Steele
Alan Keyes
My God, how do you people sleep at night?
Are you reading a different story than the rest of us?
This story does not cast Mr. V as ether a disadvantaged minority or the victim of a Democratic conspiracy. (IF Bush v. Gore taught us anything, it's that Republicans won't let such a close call get by, either, when the table is turned against them.)
I haven't been at all impressed by Ron. V's service on Council. I don't live in his district, though. And I wouldn't have voted for him if I did. But if when all the ballots, absentee and otherwise, are counted and he wins by so much as one vote, then he is the winner. The people who live in his district can decides whether to keep him or not in the next election.
You follow Minn?
Sell that garbage to someone else. Both parties fight for their wins in these contested races. Just look at Minnesota's Senate race.
Yeah, but...
...Coleman was a liar, just like the party he FAILS from. Just because RePugZ don't like Franken, that doesn't mean that the people of Minnesota chose wrong. The same goes for the slim majority that legitimately casted their votes for Delegate last week.
In: Franken and Villanueva
Out: Democrat and Republican win at all cost lies, and their respective sore-losers.
sorry for the double post
my apologies
Ron V. Typical....
Ron V. typical of his "absenteeism" and then voting himself a $10,000 payraise and THEN paying over (4x) the amount of land for light rail? We need to stop voting these CHUMPS like R.V. that waste our tax dollars and the ONLY way we can do that is DO NOT PAY TAX if these idiot council members are just raping us. NO Taxation without Representation and it looks like "The People" are smart enough to invest what WE should invest in. I can tell you this "Ron V.", you saw how fmr. Mayor Oberndorf won her election (4) yrs. ago by a narrow margin only to be (finally) defeated (4) yrs. later....it was coming...and your day is coming also. You (may have) won a very narrow margin but don't think the people are buying your garbage so now is the time for you to STRAIGHTEN UP and start pulling your weight. No show on ANY job is grounds for termination....you're pushing it Ron...you're really pushing it.
wasteful spending
Ron V is part of the city council that had the wisdom to purchase a property for over four times the assessed value ( Light rail right of way-$40 million spent to benefit Norfolk Southern). Other examples of wasteful spending are to numerous to mention. Great job Ron and thanks for "creating" those 14,000 jobs. Spending other peoples money (OPM) sure must be fun. When will the american sheeple wake up?
clueless lowwagecity
Read the newspapers...the STATE not the CITY is paying for nearly all of the Norfolk Southern line. So who do you wanna blame...the councilman or the delegate?
Do your homework before posting.
poor investments
Where do you think state tax dollars come from? And you think paying 4x the value of something is a good proposition for those of us who pay taxes? Will you ride the billion dollar boondogle? Perhaps you are employed by NS or HRT, that would explain your position.
missing the point again
You are obviously a Bobby supporter - fine. But you can't blame Ron for taking advantage of the state's support for light rail.
No I am not employed by HRT or Norfolk Southern. I just research before I post...kinda like thinking before you speak.
By the way, Bob Tata, the leader of light rail in the house won re-election 80-20 over his opponent.
oh well......
either way we loose, whether he goes to Richmond or continuing to be a VB council rubber stamp vote flunky....
Voting Discrepancy
"checking for any obvious discrepancies in each precinct's vote count"
I had chad hanging off of my electronic ballot! LOL
Does Bobby even have enough money to mount a challenge
I wonder how effective Bobby could be if this needed to go to court or anything. Does anyone know how much his Legislative Aide took from the campaign?