McDonnell election victory certified (Virginia AG)

Republican Bob McDonnell once again declared victory in the Virginia attorney general’s race on Monday after the state Board of Elections certified the results of the Nov. 8 election.

But Democrat Creigh Deeds immediately announced plans for a recount in the closest statewide election in modern Virginia history.

McDonnell edged Democrat Creigh Deeds by a mere 323 votes – a margin of less than 0.01 percentage points. More than 1.94 million votes cast ballots in the contest.

The elections board also certified the results in the races for governor, lieutenant governor and the House of Delegates. Democrat Tim Kaine was certified as the winner of the governor’s race and Republican Bill Bolling was certified as the winner in the election for lieutenant governor.

But it was the close contest for attorney general that drew a swarm of reporters and lawyers for the two candidates to observe Monday’s certification process, which most political observers treat as a formality. McDonnell, who saw his lead diminish substantially during a locality-by-locality canvassing process, expressed satisfaction with the outcome.

“I am grateful that the state Board of Elections today confirmed what the election night returns and the canvass process clearly demonstrated – that the people of Virginia have chosen me to be the 44th attorney general of our great commonwealth,” McDonnell said in a statement issued shortly after the board declared him the winner.

McDonnell, a state delegate from Virginia Beach, said he is continuing with his transition plans with an eye toward taking office on Jan. 14. But Deeds, a state senator from Bath County, plans to file a petition for a recount on Tuesday, starting a process that could leave the outcome of the election in doubt until mid-December.

“It is the right thing to do to make sure every vote is fairly and accurately counted, so the votes of the people of Virginia will ultimately decide the outcome of this election,” Deeds said. “I will respect the recount process that both Delegate McDonnell and I supported in the General Assembly to ensure that the people’s votes and their best interests are put ahead of partisanship.”

STATEMENT OF FORMER DEMOCRAT ATTORNEY GENERAL AND FORMER STATE BOARD OF ELECTIONS MEMBER-Regarding the Attorney General Election-

November 22, 2005

RICHMOND Former Democrat Attorney General Stephen Rosenthal and former State Board of Elections member and Republican Delegate John H. ("Jack") Rust issued the following statement today regarding the Attorney General election:

"We are troubled by the lack of transparency in a vote certification process that consistently has shifted vote totals in the attorney general election."

"Election day is a public event open to observers. Local electoral boards were required by law to conduct canvasses at public meetings attended by citizens, the press, and observers from both political parties. After the local canvasses concluded, however, the State Board of Elections' certification process has gone behind closed doors with little or no explanation to the public. In what should be an open and readily apparent vote certification process, the State Board appears to have ignored its role of managing the certification process and has allowed local electoral boards free reign to do so without public involvement."

"After the initial election night count, the margin of victory was roughly 3,000 votes. In the ensuing time, that margin has decreased by about 90% to less than 350 votes. The public and both political parties have been provided little explanation by neither the State Board nor the local election boards for such a significant shift in vote tallies."

"We agree wholeheartedly with respected political scientist Larry Sabato as quoted in the Richmond Times-Dispatch: "'It's amazing, that's all you can say,' he said. 'The net changes are all going in one direction, toward the Democrat, which is unusual but possible.'"

"The statistical unlikelihood of such an odd occurrence raises concerns. More worrisome is the undisclosed process, not provided for in the Code of Virginia, by which some of these changes have been discovered. For example, the State Board of Elections notified both campaigns that 56 additional paper ballots had yet to be counted in Chesapeake. This number subsequently has changed multiple times. Apparently, additional ballots were counted last Friday. Then, after the counting was supposedly complete, the tally changed again on Monday with no explanation other than that an 'error' had been made. Last Thursday, the State Board of Elections reduced the vote total for Bob McDonnell by 10 votes in Fauquier County notwithstanding the fact that the Fauquier County electoral board had certified the higher number and without providing any explanation to the public."

"It appears that the electoral boards in Chesapeake, Fauquier and elsewhere have unilaterally decided to re-open sealed envelopes or locked machines or to change vote totals without public participation and without being directed to do so by the three-member State Board of Elections or a court. Such renegade vote 'counting' falls outside the powers these boards hold under the law of Virginia and raises serious questions about the integrity of the process by which the vote total has changed since Election Day."

"We call upon the State Board of Elections to manage and control a certification process that is fair and transparent to the public, press and both political parties."

Yet the MSM still sells the story of Bush stealing the elction ... even after the WA theft.

That's because the SCOTUS stepped in and put an end to the Dim game plan - keep doing recounts until you get one that puts the democrat ahead, and then immediately stop and declare the Dim the winner and announce that it's time to "move on." If it hadn't been for the Supreme Court, we'd have had President Gore "winning" Florida in early January 2000 after about the sixth or seventh recount.

Ergo, to the MSM that means the GOP "stole" the election. Makes sense, doesn't it?

"We agree wholeheartedly with respected political scientist Larry Sabato as quoted in the Richmond Times-Dispatch: "'It's amazing, that's all you can say,' he said. 'The net changes are all going in one direction, toward the Democrat, which is unusual but possible.'"

This in a nutshell explains why the Dims get away with openly stealing elections. The Republican delegate releases this statement, knowing that this is the strongest action the GOP will take. He gets a token Dim to co-author it and give the democrat party a chance to gain some political cover by going on record "denouncing" the process, all the while knowing that no further action will be taken. And to top it off, they quote "respected political scientist" Larry Sabato, who whored himself out to the Kerry campaign last year, to basically say that while the shrinking vote gap is kind of strange, it doesn't mean that any funny business is going on.

I hate to say it, but this one is all over. The only question remaining is how large a final margin of victory the democrat party will manufacture for their man.

There was no more time for any more Floriday popular vote re-counts as of mid-night December 12th, 2000.

That's my point - if the SCOTUS hadn't stepped in and taken the case and ruled in it as it did, the Florida Supreme Court would have been more than happy to let Al Gore go on cherry-picking precincts in South Florida until the Dim hacks down there could manufacture enough votes to give Gore the "win." They had already let one state-mandated deadline slide, what was another mandated deadline? It was a serious enough threat to where the Florida Legislature was making contingency plans to award the state's electoral votes to Bush, in accordance with the certified election results.

Of course, that interfered with the democrats' plans, to recount again and again until they came up with a tally showing Gore ahead, and then immediately declare victory. So they have claimed ever since that Bush stole Florida with the SCOTUS's help. The press of course agrees completely.

Agreed, but the second dead-line was a Federal one imposed by the Congress in 1877. There is no way that the FEDERAL mid-night of December 12th, 2000 dead-line could be changed by the Florida Supreme Court, so the game was over at that point. The four minority members of the US Supreme Court thought that the 1877 dead-line decision of Congress could be 'extended' from mid-night December 12th to maybe December 17th so that the Florida Supreme Court could continue to play havoc with the Federal Presidential election. The Congress of its day was pretty clear that the week before the Electors vote is a HARD dead-line, otherwise the Congress may discount any slate of Electors named after the 'safe harbor' dead-line...

As you said, the Florida Legislature would have stepped into the mess on December 13th and named the Bush and Cheney slate of Electors ending the problem permanently.

The Florida Supreme Court had no business interfering with the Federal powers granted exclusively to the Florida State Legislature ALONE...

dvwjr

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