The Drawn-Out House Vote-Counting Battle to Come

Those hoping to find out who won in the Goode/Perriello race will have to wait a while longer—until around Christmas, if the 2005 recount in the Creigh Deeds/Bob McDonnell race for attorney general is any guide. Historically, the best source of data has been straight from the SBE, rather than from third parties like CNN, etc., so those are the numbers to look at. Though at this moment Goode is up by a hundred-odd votes, we’re in the territory where minor adjustments from precinct officials can and will toss the race back and forth. Following this from hour-to-hour will drive you nuts.

That said, many of us are bound and determined to be driven nuts. And to that end, electronic voting expert and UVa professor Bryan Pfaffenberger provides an explanation of what we’re seeing here today:

I just did an analysis of the changes due to Veris [the new (and controversial) state voter registration database system] malfunction (?). In Danville, Tom Perriello’s vote totals (”original value”) were REDUCED by 308, while Virgil Goode’s vote totals were INCREASED by 1819.

I do not understand why vote totals would have been affected by VERIS “going down after midnight,” as the VBE update page states. It seems the system is used to report vote totals. So precincts were able to report vote totals before midnight (presumably, these are the “original values”), but were prevented from finishing until this morning, when (it seems) the system was rebooted. Why, then, would vote totals have been decreased as well as increased?

There will certainly be a recount, and that recount will require volunteers from both campaigns to go stomping around in sheds and barns to witness the audit of the voting equipment over the course of a half a day. If you want to help, get in touch with your candidate of choice and offer to observe come the appointed day. I did it for Sen. Deeds, and have volunteered to do the same for Tom Perriello.

Those of y’all who are as eager to keep up with the fluctuations of numbers as I am are welcome to post the changing numbers here as they settle down in the coming days.

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