As everyone by now knows, the race for Virginia Attorney General is real close. Still up in the air right now is whether 473 provisional ballots in heavily Democratic Fairfax County will be counted.
According to The Washington Post, these ballots will not be counted unless the actual voters appear in person at the Fairfax County Board of Elections by 1 p.m. on Tuesday. Please note that this is a change from the past policy which did not require the voters to appear in person. In the past, Fairfax County allowed advocates to represent the voters even without the actual voters present. However, Fairfax County can no longer allow this due to a memo issued by the State Board of Elections on Friday. You can read the actual memo in here in this article by WTOP.
Note that this memo came out three days after the election, when it became clear that Attorney General's race could be decided by these provisional ballots. Of particular interest is this statement by a local official of the Fairfax County Board of Elections.
County Electoral Board Secretary Brian Shoeneman says he and board chairman Seth Stark disagree with the ruling, but they have to comply . . .
"The office of the Attorney General advised us that this was the correct reading of the statute," State Board of Elections Secretary Don Palmer says.
http://www.wtop.com/... (bold emphasis mine)
Naturally, local democrats are raising concerns about the memo issued by the State Board of Elections.
Democrats said they were disproportionately hurt by the change, given the county’s partisan makeup. They also questioned the timing of the directive, issued 72 hours after a race that ended in a virtual dead heat.
“The real question for everybody here is whether or not that change makes a difference and whose vote is counted,” said Terry Adams, a member of the Mason District Democratic Committee.
In a close contest, Adams said, “it could make a big difference.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
The Washington Post is reporting that very few of the provisional ballots have been counted so far.
By noon, however, just over 20 people out of the 493 who had cast provisional ballots had appeared at the Fairfax County Government Center, officials said. The board will continue to consider those ballots and hear from voters until 1 p.m. Tuesday, officials said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
So please if you know someone who voted by provisional ballot in Fairfax County, please contact them and urge them to go in person to the Fairfax County Board of Elections by 1 p.m. on Tuesday so that their vote can be counted.
(Note that I am not sure if the Tuesday 1 p.m. deadline applies just to Fairfax County or to all of Virginia as the Board of Elections as the Board of Elections website lists the deadline as this past Friday. So I'd appreciate it if anyone has information about the deadline for counting provisional ballots in other counties that they either post it in the comments below or write a diary about it so that we can get the word out.)
7:23 AM PT: Teacherken has a more complete diary on this topic so I would refer readers to his diary for more information.
http://www.dailykos.com/...