Recount likely to decide Virginia's next attorney general
The race for attorney general in Virginia appears headed for a recount with Democrat Mark Herring leading Republican Mark Obenshain by a razor-thin margin of just 117 votes out of more than 2.2 million cast, according to the latest tally Tuesday morning.
The result will be the difference between a Democratic sweep of the top three positions on the ballot in the Nov. 5 general election and giving the Republicans a single victory. It is far closer than even the governor's race, where Democrat Terry McAuliffe beat the departing Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli by a margin of just 47.7 percent to 45.2 percent.
A recount is not triggered automatically. According to the Virginia Board of Elections, once the elections are certified on Nov. 25, the apparent loser will have 10 days, until Dec. 5, to request a recount with the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond, and he or she may only do so if the results show them losing by a margin less than 1 percent of the total votes cast for both candidates (as of Tuesday morning, that margin was just .005 percent - far below the threshold).
The state will pick up the tab for the cost of the recount if the margin between the two candidates is less than half a percent (which it is as of Tuesday morning), or if the candidate requesting the recount is declared the winner after the ballots are checked. The whole process could take weeks.
Herring and Obenshain, both state senators, have traded the top spot back and forth since last week's election. First Herring was up by 32 votes, before being overtaken by Obenshain on Saturday night by a margin of 55 votes. But after a voting machine in Richmond that had not been counted was discovered, Herring took his 117-vote lead.
This is not the first time the attorney general's race has come down to the wire. In 2005, current Gov. Bob McDonnell beat his Democratic challenger, R. Creigh Deeds, by just 360 votes. During the recount, McDonnell's lead grew by 37 votes and he was ultimately declared the winner six weeks after the election.