VIRGINIA BEACH
Rep. Thelma Drake late Thursday night conceded the election for the 2nd Congressional District to political newcomer Glenn Nye after a bitterly fought race.
With a small number of absentee ballots still being counted, Republican Drake released a statement saying some voters waited in line for hours and many troops serving overseas, including Iraq and Afghanistan, sent absentee ballots.
“Those ballots have been counted and the voters have decided,” she said, congratulating Democrat Nye.
The Virginia Beach Voter Registrar’s office nearly finished the count of 26,778 absentee ballots Thursday after three days of tallying. A technical problem required the recount of 600 ballots. “If it could go wrong in this election, it did,” said Registar Pat Harrington. “We’ve never had a machine malfunction.”
In another high-visibility race, bank president Will Sessoms maintained his lead over long-time Mayor Meyera Oberndorf, who has conceded defeat. With a lead in the thousands of votes, an upset was mathematically impossible. That was also the case for Glenn R. Davis Jr., who unofficially unseated incumbent Reba S. McClanan to represent the Rose Hall District on City Council, and Patrick Salyer, who unofficially beat Erika M. Walker-Cash for the second at-large seat on the Virginia Beach School Board.
As many as 20 election officials
counted ballots from 5 a.m. Tuesday until 5 a.m. Wednesday, then took a few hours to sleep. By noon, they were back at it, counting for five more hours. Election officials returned to Building 14 at the city Muncipal Center at 10 a.m. Thursday but couldn’t finish counting.
The Nye victory delivers the district to Democrats for the first time since 2000, and he heads to Washington as part of the growing Democratic majority on Capitol Hill. The 34-year-old former foreign service officer ran a campaign stressing the need for bipartisan cooperation in Washington and an exit strategy for the war in Iraq.
The absentee ballots were about double the normal total received by the registrar’s office. They included 10,115 mailed absentee ballots and 16,663 that were cast in person.
Each had to be authenticated and then recorded.
Virginia Beach election officials reviewed voter receipts from touch-screen computers used during in-person absentee balloting, and scoured each paper ballot to ensure the voter had followed instructions and filled it out properly.
Each voter’s name also had to be matched with registration records. Officials tallied votes for write-in candidates before feeding the paper ballots through counting machines.
“It takes time to check each one of these and make sure they’re qualified to be counted,” Harrington said. “I knew it’d be at least two days.”
The job may still not be finished.
Federal absentee ballots received after the Tuesday deadline are being held in a vault, pending the outcome of a federal lawsuit filed by John McCain’s presidential campaign. The suit alleges absentee ballots were sent to many military service members overseas too late for them to return them by the deadline. A hearing on that suit is set for Nov. 17.
Pilot writers Aaron Applegate, Julian Walker and Tim McGlone contributed to this report.
Shawn Day, (757) 222-5131, shawn.day@pilotonline.com
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
Well Gertz, I can't believe
Well Gertz, I can't believe you are that insecure. I don't stalk anybody on these blogs. You, I, and hundreds of others participate on these boards and challenge each others opinions and philosophy. Again, stay out of the kitchen if you can't take the heat.
grow up keith
If I say the sky is blue you will swear it's green. That's the way it is. I'm not going to play battle of the one liner's on this blog like I haven't on others that you stalk me on. Get over it!
Gertz
I refer back last part of my previous post.
Drake did Well by Waiting
I had to vote by absentee ballot for this election myself. I can only respect Thelma Drake's position in waiting until ALL of the ballots from our servicemen and women had been counted, before declaring the election finished. I think she should have called Nye herself, but otherwise she did the right thing by our troops.
Sessoms
Why are we not hearing anything from Sessoms...I was taught when someone attacks your integrity you shout from the rooftop and tell anyone who will listen the truth....Otherwise it might as well be true.... Sessoms has no Integrity and no respect for the people… Why are we not hearing anything from Sessoms...?
(So concerned were Obama campaign officials about the spread of misinformation to voters that they hastily called a news conference)
http://hamptonroads.com/node/486773
Why has he not addressed the flyers…Sessoms We are not going to FORGET this even if the Pilot doesn’t report it…How much did the city spend on advertising last year??
it's interesting keith
Of all the people who attacked that comment you chose to point out mine. Should I be flattered, or feel like I'm being stalked?
Gertz opines "First off I
Gertz opines "First off I don't believe you are an attorney, and second that is one of the dumbiest comments I've read yet.
You will never win a case with that mind set.
Gees, where do they come from???"
He comes from the same place as you do. It appears to this writer that you feel everyone who makes a comment contrary to your beliefs and opinions has the brains of a marshmallow. You don't have room to talk.
what the article didn't say is
What the article didn't say is Glenn Nye beat Thelma Drake not by 8000 votes but after the final count he beat her by over 12,000 votes.
Now that's what I'm talking about!
Midnight Shift
Thank Goodness. At least I won't be awakened by a recorded message from HER trying to tell me who to vote for. Being a first responder who must be on call and trying to sleep during the day was impossible the last few years. Her voice became so OBNOXIOUS that I actually voted DEMOCRATIC in this election.
(Wish I had her home # so I could call and Congratulate her at 3:00 AM)
Thank God
Thank God this horrible neocon is gone. It's a great day for Virginia, America, the world, and working people and their families.
If I was Running ....
...for elected office...I'd gladly accept 10 votes from "uneducated" voters...over 1 vote for an "educated" one...hmmm...I'm glad YOU think your educated vote has more worth...perhaps that's where Thelma went wrong?....Elvis is laughing!!!
VBATTORNEY....
Who voted with GWB on that No Child Left Behind package??? Kennedy comes to mind... 196 democrats voted for it in the House, 46 Dems in the Senate voted for it... so don't lay this one in the lap of Bush. If you do you have to lay it in the lap of them as well...
vabattorney
First off I don't believe you are an attorney, and second that is one of the dumbiest comments I've read yet.
You will never win a case with that mind set.
Gees, where do they come from???
Why
Why should anyone congratulate someone else for blatant misrepresentation of facts, who can't answer a simple yes/no question concerning what how they would vote and convinces the brain dead that being a travel claim expert makes them a better candidate?
Drake released a statement???????
The more we hear about Drake the less I like her. She could have at leased picked up the phone and called Nye to congratulat him.
seanh21900 ...true and with that said
It should be noted that Nye is the most conservative democrat there is. Proves the adage that a democrat in Virginia would be a progressive republican in anywhere else in the country. I just make note of it because I feel is that Virginia still has a ways to go for to serve the interests of a new generation of population. There will come a time in this country and state whereby there will be a new outlook to our leaders as well as expectation and though I voted for Nye against Drake I do feel that he saved face by posturing himself away from the brain trust of the new progressive movement and my hope is that he lives and learns. Yes the Military industrial complex is important to our area but there is a way to move our industry ad the military workforce to serve the interest of sustainable peacetime objective. This is a wait and see but the citizens of Norfolk should be wary of the left over Dixiecrat's in political consulting who rule the state party and are surely vested in the old guard network who should be isolated and removed from power. Just look hard at your city officials. Lets hope he truely has a mind set to evolving the area in ways that most ould only imagine
VB Attorney
Do you really want to go there?
I've got two words for you:
Sarah Palin
VBAttorney
See what happens when you cut spending on education to feed a useless war machine and mandate a "no child gets ahead" schooling? You get silliness like what you heard. Its just one more of the problems the Obama administration is inheriting after so many years of failed US domestic policies.
What is the Electoral College??
To VBAttorney: The question which you overheard: "Do you know what the electoral college is?" Sounds like a question in which Sarah Palin might ask!!!
Nye
Please do not become a lap dog for Pelosi.