WP: Judges Exclude 26% of Ballots in Va. Recount (setback to Dem Deeds) [View All]

Judges Exclude 26% of Ballots in Va. Recount
By Carol Morello
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 10, 2005; Page B03


A three-judge panel in Richmond decided yesterday that more than 500,000 ballots cast in the attorney general's race will not be recounted and run again through tabulating machines.

The ruling was a setback to Democratic Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, who trails Republican Del. Robert F. McDonnell by 323 votes out of 1.94 million cast in the Nov. 8 election. After McDonnell was certified the winner, Deeds requested the recount, scheduled to take place over two days beginning Dec. 20.

Joseph Kearfott, Deeds's attorney, had argued that all paper ballots counted on optical scan machines should be rerun through tabulators to ensure an accurate recount. The Deeds campaign had hoped to pick up some "undervotes" that had not been counted by the machines.

"Here there is a meaningful chance that a full recount . . . could result in the difference in the election," Kearfott said in court, according to the Associated Press. "You owe it to the candidates and to the state of Virginia."

"Undervotes" is the term used when a machine records no vote. That can be the result of a voter's decision not to vote for either candidate. But in some cases, Kearfott said, they occur when a voter mistakenly marks the ballot outside the lines or in some other fashion that the tabulator cannot recognize....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/09/AR2005120901883.html