Posted on 11/08/2006 11:31:26 AM PST by areafiftyone
A senior advisor to George Allen's Senate campaign said Allen would wait until after the vote is official later this month to decide whether to seek a recount.
Ed Gillespie said Jim Webb was leading Allen by about 7,000 votes this morning, or about .3 percent of the total votes cast. He said that could change during the official canvas that is starting today in localities around the state. He said it is likely some vote totals will change as mistakes in tabulating totals are discovered.
"No one is more interested in the outcome of this race in Virginia than are members of the Allen campaign," Gillespie said during a news conference outside Republican headquarters in Richmond.
The canvas could take the rest of the week. The results won't be officials until they are certified on Nov. 27......
(Excerpt) Read more at timesdispatch.com ...
I'm not gonna hold my breath. The absentee ballots that were counted were running only about 60-40 in Allen's favor, and there aren't enough uncounted to put him over the top. Barring any sort od significant mis-count, I'm afraid Allen is done.
TC
Allen has as good a chance of overturning a 3% margin as Richard Nixon has winning the 1960 Presidential election.
I've been going by the official State Board of Elections website; you can get to it by going to
http://www.virginia.gov
And the "live election results" link is prominent on the front page.
If you drill down onto their list by locality for the Senate race, it's showing three precincts still not counted--the absentee votes in Isle of Wight County, one of the two absentee votes "precincts" in James City County, and the Roberts B precinct in James City County. (Then again, I think Roberts B is a screwup on the webpage, because there's actually *two* "Roberts B" lines--one has votes, one doesn't.) Virginia groups all absentee votes for a county or independent city into one or more precincts under that county/city, usually called "central absentee precinct" or something similar. They have been counted for everyplace in the state except Isle of Wight and James City.
Now, does that mean that everything's right in the 2200+ precincts that have reported? Of course not. But as of now (just after 3:00), only the absentee ballots out of two fairly small counties hadn't reported. Everything else had sent the State Board of Elections something, right or wrong.
Here's the numbers as of 3:00 pm EST:
Office: U.S. Senate
Precincts Reporting: 2440 of 2443 (99.88%)
Registered Voters: 4,555,629 Total Voting: 2,367,032 Voter Turnout: 51.96 %
Candidates Party Vote Totals Percentage
J H Webb Jr Democratic 1,172,913 49.55%
G F Allen Republican 1,165,557 49.24%
G G Parker Independent Green 26,212 1.11%
Write Ins 2,350 0.10%
View Results by District Locality Total: 2,367,032
Webb has a 7,356-vote lead. There's no way that those three missing precincts can deliver that kind of push for Allen. So if Allen is going to make up any ground, it's going to have to come from the canvass, and if there's any votes that are not included in the State Board of Elections' website. I don't know if military ballots, for example, are rolled into the absentee votes, or if they're handled separately.
Bottom line: It's going to take a miracle, or it's going to take the discovery of a major accounting cock-up in Webb's favor somewhere in the vote-counting process. There was a FReeper last night that said he didn't even see his son's precinct on the list for a given (Allen-leaning) county, but I don't know which county or precinct.
}:-)4
Uh, that's "(point).3 percent"...
It's not a 3 percent margin, but a .3 (point 3) percent, less than one third of one percent margin.
Allen's a politician. Politicians have a tough time retiring.
Allen ran a moderate campaign and allowed him to get in a mud fight with WAPO, while Webb ran as a conservative. Hell, Allen trashed Webb for supporting women serving in the military.
If he runs a conservative campaign next time, he could probably win so long as he doesn't make the stupid mistakes he made this time on the trail. Losing doesn't mean he can't win given the closeness here. Thune is an example of that. Even Nixon is an example of that. Maybe not the example people want, but true.
Now I'm not opposed to other candidates, but unless you have a strong one out there, Allen seems the obvious choice for what will be a tough battle nationwide in '08.
Allen should just GIVE IT UP...
Let's AMerica see what 2 years living with Dims brings.
The way its looking now he just may have to. But we will see. I agree that in 2 years the Dems can screw it up royally and that is when the American people will vote for Republicans again!
I don't think he should give up. I think he should challenge it and have a recount. Mistakes are made. Remember Washington State's governor's race? They kept counting until they got the numbers they wanted.
I remember Reps giving it up for as long as I can remember.
Allen hanging on just gives the MSM something to talk about against us Reps.
I still say Allen should get out of their way and that way we give them enough ROPE to hang demselves.
The stupid MSM is talking gridlock and $ocial issues but I foresee that COST of the elections as more WTCs here and abroad.
Hope I'm wrong.
The end tally was very close, I think they can get a recount with it so close. No reason to concede just yet.
They should wait and see what the canvass shows. Right now Allen is about 7400 votes down, .31% out of 2,367,032 cast. If I was him, and I end up that far down, I'd be willing to foot the bill for a recount if I had to. I wouldn't begrudge Webb doing the same thing if the positions were reversed. That's not being a sore loser, really; a 3700-vote swing is a hell of a lot to make up just off clerical errors, but who knows? If the law allows him to do it, he should do it.
}:-)4
True, and sad to see this seat go, especially one that should have been a shoo-in. But I guess the only bright spot, if you can call it that, is it's better to find out about Allen's capacity for ineptness now. What if he won, got the nomination for president and this happened? Ay yi yi.
I stand corrected. 7,000 votes sounds like a big shortfall to overcome, but more power if he can given what's at stake.
I stand corrected.
Something’s going on in Virginia:
Latest numbers at 7:30 PM show some tightening from earlier numbers:
J H Webb Jr Democratic 1,173,805 49.55%
G F Allen Republican 1,166,488 49.24%
Shortfall: 7,317
Now claiming ONLY 94.81% – down 5% from earlier
See below.
At 3:10 PM this afternoon, these were the numbers:
J H Webb Jr Democratic 1,172,913 49.55%
G F Allen Republican 1,165,557 49.24%
Shortfall: 7,356
Precincts Reporting: 99.88%
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.