Virginia Public Radio

With little fanfare, the State Board of Elections painstakingly waded through the November 5^th vote tallies sent in by localities … and certified Democrats Terry McAuliffe, Ralph Northam, and Mark Herring as the winners of their statewide electoral contests.  But as Virginia Public Radio’s Anne Marie Morgan reports, Herring’s certification as Attorney General-elect by the closest statewide margin in the Commonwealth’s modern history is prompting speculation that Republican Mark Obenshain will challenge those results.

If Obenshain asks for a recount, Virginia will conduct it under a new law passed since the last statewide recount in 2005.  The law, sponsored by Senator Creigh Deeds, would require all optical scan ballots to be recounted … and provides an option of manually checking under-votes to determine if the machines missed tabulating them.