Just a few minutes ago on a conference call with reporters, Attorney Marc Elias discussed (see audio below) the lawsuit by Virginia House Democrats on the results of HD-28 and the possible seating (or not) of Republican Bob Thomas. According to Elias, HD-28’s results are both “unknown and unknowable.” The results are “unknowable,” in Elias’ view, because the number of disenfranchised voters in HD-28 is larger than the margin of “victory” in this race. By Elias’ count, “while there are only 73 votes that separate the two candidates, 384 registered voters were misassigned between the two districts; 147 of them voted…a majority of the 147 were from Fredericksburg where Cole won 70% of the vote…86 voters were excluded and 61 votes cast by HD-88 voters were counted, so we had errors going in both directions, but of course that was only among the 147 voters who actually cast ballots; we don’t know how many more of the 384 voters woudl have voted had they been properly assigned between the two districts.” For all those reasons, “we are asking the Court of Appeals to issue an injunction against further seating until our motion for a new election can be resolved.”
P.S. Also, Elias argues, there’s no way to go back at this point and figure out who voted for – or would have vote for – which candidate. Ergo, Elias says, a revote is the only appropriate remedy.
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