Absentee ballots unlikely to affect 5th District race

An unknown number of late-arriving absentee ballots cast by U.S. military personnel overseas have not yet been counted in the photo finish race between Democrat Tom Perriello of Ivy and U.S. Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr., R-Rocky Mount.

The fate of the uncounted military ballots will be decided at a court hearing Monday in Richmond. The campaign of GOP presidential candidate John McCain sued Virginia to ensure that absentee ballots from soldiers be counted, even if they arrived after Election Day.

The McCain campaign argued in the lawsuit that American troops serving on the front lines in places like Iraq and Afghanistan might not have had a reasonable amount of time to receive, fill out and send back their absentee ballots. In some cases, the lawsuit said, local election officials did not mail out the absentee ballots until October, giving military voters insufficient time to mail back the ballots before the Election Day deadline.

A hearing in the case was scheduled for this past Monday, but was continued until next week. In the meantime, a federal judge has ordered all local voter registrars in Virginia to preserve any such absentee ballots from military voters that arrived after Nov. 4.

“The question is now whether these ballots will be counted or not,” said Susan S. Pollard, director of communications for the Virginia State Board of Elections.

While the uncounted military votes are unlikely to sway the presidential race in Virginia, they may have more of an impact in the still extremely close 5th District race between Perriello and Goode. As of Tuesday afternoon, Perriello continued to hold a 745-vote lead over six-term incumbent Goode. Perriello declared victory Friday in Martinsville. Goode has not yet conceded the race and a recount is possible.

Even if the late-arriving military ballots are counted, there may not be enough of them to affect the outcome of the race in the 5th District, which includes Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene and Nelson.

Albemarle County, which is by far the most heavily populated locality in the 5th District, has had only two absentee ballots from military personnel arrive after Nov. 4.

“We’ve gotten a bunch of late-arriving absentee ballots, but only two were marked as military,” said Albemarle County Registrar Jake Washburne.

Most of the other 21 voter registration offices in the 5th District could not be reached for comment Tuesday, as they were closed for Veterans Day.

Mike Brown, coordinator of the Goode campaign’s canvass effort, said there might be a substantial sum of military votes that remain uncounted in the district. Many more absentee ballots were requested by active duty troops, he said, than were returned by Election Day.

“We’re of the opinion that if any group of people should have their vote counted it’s the people putting their lives on the line defending democracy around the world,” Brown said.

Brown added that the vote count is not done in the race and that the tally continues to move slightly. The process, he pointed out, is not done until the vote count is certified on Nov. 24. “We’re not done yet,” he said.

It is not unusual for voting numbers to shift in the days following an election. Two years ago, unofficial returns on election night showed Goode as receiving 124,937 votes and Democrat Al Weed as receiving 84,292. After the district-wide voting canvass wrapped up, however, Goode’s certified total was 125,370 and Weed’s was 84,682.

Jessica Barba, spokeswoman for the Perriello campaign, said that they support whatever the courts decide about the late-arriving military votes.

“Of course any legitimate vote from the military serving overseas should be counted,” she said. “But this is a matter for the courts now. From what I understand, though, the numbers we’re talking about wouldn’t be enough to change the margin significantly.”

The Perriello campaign, Barba said, is not waiting around until the results are certified. The problems facing the district, she said, are too big to wait until December. Perriello is planning to attend freshman orientation for new congressmen next week in Washington.

“Tom has got to hit the ground running,” Barba said. “We don’t have any time to waste.”