That must be the case, because our current recount law forbids officials from even looking at a ballot in most cases, even if the number of uncounted ballots exceed the margin.
In 2002, the General Assembly overreacted to the Florida recount and neutered our recount law to the point that Virginia recounts are now completely useless theater.
If you like paper trails, you'll hate our current recount law.
The Senate passed SB 35 to return to our 2002 law for recounting optical scan tabulators -- there's nothing we can do about recounting the touchscreens.
The House Privileges and Elections committee will vote Friday morning, Feb 22, on SB 35.
Please email or call members of the House Privileges and Election Committee asking them to vote for SB 35 to restore meaningful recounts to ensure the integrity of Virginia's elections.
The vote is early Friday morning, so please contact them by Thursday afternoon. If you read this after Friday's vote, please go ahead and contact other delegates - especially your own to support the bill on the floor)
Please be very polite and brief. They will more likely count the emails than read details
Last year the General Assembly approved a bill which moves Virginia away from touch screen voting machines, towards optical scan tabulators. The point of this change was to provide a voter verified paper trail that would permit recounts and audits.
SB 35 would permit recount officials to rerun all the optical scan ballots through the tabulators and to hand count any ballots that were rejected by the tabulator.
Thank you for your time and effort to contact these Virginia Delegates asap!
Other news: Both chambers defeated attempts to roll back last years' ban on buying more DRE touchscreen voting machines.
House Privileges and Elections Committee members
Chairman: Mark L. Cole, 804-698-1088, DelMCole@house.state.va.us
Vice Chairman: John A. Cosgrove, 804-698-1078, DelJCosgrove@house.state.va.us
Members: Lacey E. Putney, 804-698-1019, DelLPutney@house.state.va.us
Riley E. Ingram, 804-698-1062, DelRIngram@house.state.va.us
Frank D. Hargrove, Sr., 804-698-1055, DelFHargrove@house.state.va.us
S. Chris Jones, 804-698-1076, DelCJones@house.state.va.us
David B. Albo, 804-698-1042, DelDAlbo@house.state.va.us
Jeffrey M. Frederick, 804-698-1052, DelJFrederick@house.state.va.us
William H. Fralin Jr., 804-698-1017, DelWFralin@house.state.va.us
John M. O’Bannon, III, 804-698-1073, DelJOBannon@house.state.va.us
Robert B. Bell, 804-698-1058, DelRBell@house.state.va.us
Jackson H. Miller, 804-698-1050, DelJMiller@house.state.va.us
Terrie L. Suit, 804-698-1081, DelTSuit@house.state.va.us
Clarence E. “Bud” Philips, 804-698-1002, DelBPhilips@house.state.va.us
James M. Scott, 804-698-1053, DelJScott@house.state.va.us
Robert H. Brink, 804-698-1048, DelRBrink@house.state.va.us
Kenneth C. Alexander, 804-698-1089, DelKAlexander@house.state.va.us
Johnny S. Joannou, 804-698-1079, no email
Mark D. Sickles, 804-698-1043, DelMSickles@house.state.va.us
Rosalyn R. Dance, 804-698-1063, DelRDance@house.state.va.us
David L. Englin, 804-698-1045, DelDEnglin@house.state.va.us
Joseph D. Morrissey, 804-698-1074, DelJMorrissey@house.state.va.us