No clear winner in 5th District election

The candidates for the 5th District congressional seat kept an avid watch as vote counts from the State Board of Elections fluctuated throughout the day Wednesday. Official results will likely not be in for a couple days.

At 5:30 p.m., Democratic challenger Tom Perriello had a razor-thin 31-vote lead with 157,456 votes to incumbent Virgil Goode’s 157,425. The Board of Elections is scheduled to convene again at 5 p.m. today to continue examining the votes.

In six congressional terms, Goode has never won his seat with less than 60 percent of the vote and throughout the race, pundits expected him to win handily. A few months ago, Goode held a commanding 34-point lead over Perriello in 5th District polls, but going into the election last week, an ABC poll showed a statistical dead heat.

At 11 p.m. Tuesday, Perriello was holding onto a 500-vote lead. Early Wednesday morning, Goode was 302 votes above his opponent. Leads kept growing and shrinking throughout the day as precincts were canvassing; rechecking all votes, examining the validity of provisional ballots and updating their counts.

Danville Registrar Peggy Petty said all Danville numbers were correct on the Board of Elections Web site before midnight, but that election officials ran into some problems loading results from more than 2,700 absentee ballots. In the morning, the numbers were again correct.

Goode was in good spirits Wednesday morning with a 146-vote lead.

“This is a tight election, we are pleased to be ahead,” Goode said a little before noon during a telephone news conference. “We are optimistic that when every ballot is in, we will prevail.”

He said members of his staff, as well as those of Perriello’s campaign, were on hand “in every jurisdiction” to monitor the canvassing process and make sure every vote was counted.

At his Danville office at about 3:30 p.m., Perriello addressed a group of volunteers after having just inched ahead by 31 votes.

“It’s amazing to think that we are here, at a point where it looks like we’re going to win this race,” Perriello said, especially “when you think about how few people gave us a shot a couple months ago.”

Perriello said his campaign is focused on making sure every vote was counted.

Petty said she was surprised by the results.

“For a 5th District congressional race,” Petty said, “that’s really unbelievable that it’s that close. It’s just really amazing.”

Though the numbers are close, and Petty said she’s hoping to avoid a recount, she’s confident in the system.

“The process is going to work, the way it’s always worked,” Petty said. “It’s going to be what it’s going to be, and it’s going to be right.”

Contact Sarah Arkin at or (434) 791-7983.