Election officials had planned to break a tie in a Virginia House race by choosing a winner at random today. But, it's been postponed after the Democrat announced plans to challenge results in court. That means control of the House of Delegates is still up in the air, with one potential outcome being a 50-50 tie. If that result comes to pass, Michael Pope reports that it wouldn't be a first for Virginia.
The last time a House of Delegates election was tied was back in 1971. One particular ballot was in question during that election because the voter had placed an X next to the Democrat and a check next to the Republican then wrote on the ballot that he did not wish to vote for Democrats. Election judges threw that vote out and said the voter should have requested a clean ballot. Quentin Kidd at Christopher Newport University says that was an era when judges were more likely to throw ballots out rather than determine the intent of the voter.
“Virginia, like many Southern states, has a history of enforcing informal rules that were designed to disenfranchise voters who were African American or poor white voters.”
Contrast that to this year, when election judges were confronted by a similar ballot — one that has bubbles filled out for the Democrat and the Republican in the House race. But this voter did not write on the ballot which candidate was preferred, although election judges eventually counted it for the Republican because of a line drawn through one of the bubbles. Geoff Skelley at the University of Virginia Center for Politics says a number of questionable ballots were counted in this election that probably would have been cast aside in 1971.
“If the recount had not applied the more liberal standard for counting contested ballots like this, the Democrat might not have even been in a position to win because of some of the ballots that were counted on her behalf.”
Election officials were also confronted with a tie in 1949. That’s when no Republican candidates were running for attorney general, and two potential candidates emerged as write in candidates for a nomination that neither man wanted. They were tied with seven votes each in the statewide race.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
