Posted on 11/08/2006 12:51:06 PM PST by areafiftyone
RICHMOND, Va. — Republican Sen. George Allen refused to concede defeat Wednesday, even as Democrat Jim Webb declared victory and began assembling a transition team.
With Republican Sen. Conrad Burns' loss in Montana, the Democrats would gain control of the Senate if Webb's lead holds. The margin between the two Virginia candidates was about 7,000 votes.
"The votes are in and we won," Webb declared. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Webb had 1,169,285 votes, or 49.6 percent, to Allen's 1,162,577, or 49.3 percent. Allen's campaign, however, said the Senator would wait for a full review of the Virginia vote.
"The conclusion of the canvass will be the final official results," said Ed Gillespie, the former Republican National Committee chairman and adviser to Allen.
Representatives from both campaigns and party officials were at polling places across Virginia as the canvass was under way. The state has until Nov. 14 to complete it, Gillespie said.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Oh, we're here.
I like Duncan Hunter.
Military is important. But wasn't Webb Navy? Might that not balance out the pro-Allen votes? I'm not sure of the dynamics there.
Sooooooo, what's the scoop? Are the absentees / military votes in play?...........
many of us were watching the results come in real time.
its the same pattern - figure out what they need to win, pull out the motor voter records and see who didn't vote, and fill out a provisional ballot for them and push it through.
There were many precincts in Richmond that went 90+% for Webb. These precincts were almost certainly housing projects, of which Richmond is slap full. Looking at the list, probably a third of Richmond's 67 precincts went 80% or more for Webb. The city overall went 72-27 Webb. The suburbs went for Allen, not quite that extreme.
}:-)4
Makes me grateful to be a poor Anglo-Saxon boy!
Sanford, with Michael Steele as running mate.
The fact that Allen was ahead until 99% of the votes were in is extremely fishy. I think it was completely trashed and I don't like it one bit.
You know what else was really strange? Did you notice that almost all of the Fairfax County precincts were in early in the evening--226 of 229, but for the longest time the last three did not report.
I am almost positive I saw the same thing last year with the governors race. If my memory is correct, it would be interesting to find out if the same three precincts sat the night out till the last minute--and why that might be.
I suppose it is possible that 226 precincts in Fairfax have ultra-fast hightech equipment and three use paper ballots that have to be handcounted, but I don't know how likely it is.
Yeah, something about this election stinks. The Dems did much too well considering how good the economy is right now. We're going to have to investigate these unusual events immediately in 2008. You and I both know who's behind this stuff.
The last few precincts that reported in in the final 1% when the lead went from Allen to Webb were absentee ballots from Arlington and Fairfax Counties, two liberal bastions (the latter only recently).
In Virginia there is an automatic recount if the difference between the two candidates is 0.50% of the total vote. Of 2.2 million cast, there is now a difference of around 7K.
I am not holding out a lot of hope, and it about breaks my heart. Both George Allen and Rick Santorum served as honorable, solid conservatives. Personally I am ashamed of VA voters right now.
Absentees have been reported (according to the State Board of Elections) in all counties and cities except Isle of Wight County and James City County, both of which are fairly small rural/suburban counties in between Richmond and Tidewater. Absentees get lumped into "absentee precincts" by county/city. Mash here:
http://www.virginia.gov
...click on the live results link, and go nuts. Drill down by locality, and then you can get a complete precinct list for each county and independent city.
I do not know how military ballots are handled--whether they're lumped with the absentees or not. My gut--this is just my considerable gut, not anything logical or definitive--says that they are NOT. I say this because I have looked at the absentee figures for Norfolk (home of the naval base) and Virginia Beach (home of Oceana NAS/Langley AFB). The Va Beach absentees went only 51-47 for Allen; the Norfolk absentees went hardcore for Webb, and there weren't that many. But I don't know how or when they're added in, sorry.
Now, the big question is, how accurate are the figures on the State Board of Elections website. I've been assuming they're the "unofficial official" figures, reported from the counties/cities. They're subject to change as the canvass gets done, I imagine.
Webb has around a 7400-vote lead. Not totally insurmountable, but I sure wouldn't be laying any money on Allen pulling the miracle right now, if I had any money to bet. It's a longshot.
}:-)4
Yeah, perhaps those last three precints waited until they knew how many ballots to manufacture for Webb.
I thought the same thing until Corin Stormhands pointed out that the last three precincts were the three absentee ballot groupings. Two of them reported just before midnight and they were the ones that finally turned Allen's 1800-vote lead into a 2000-vote deficit.
}:-)4
There is the stench of a coupe d'etat by the DNC in the air today.
Obviously they were going to take seats and possibly power but there were lots of screwy little things that went on.
For instance did those people in Arizona ever get their ballots?
absolutely. I am convinced there were irregularities in this race.
George Allen ping
This election needs a full recount and investigation to look for fraud by the democrats.
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