The following ruling was issued earlier this afternoon by the three-judge panel overseeing the recount in Virginia’s 94th House of Delegates district. Following this ruling against Democrat Shelly Simonds (“Petitioner”) and for Republican Del. David Yancey, tomorrow at 11 am, the State Board of Elections will proceed with its drawing of one name from a glass bowl to determine the winner in this district – and potentially control of the Virginia House of Delegates.
Key quotes from the ruling include: 1) “The Court does not find that its ruling allowing the ballot challenge by Mr. Mallory to be clear error or to cause manifest injustice”; 2) “It was clear to the court that the line was not a partial erasure or obliteration of the mark for the petitioner. Thus, the issue was whether the line through the mark was a scratch out…the Court found that it corresponded to the definition of a scratch” and as such “shall be counted as a vote for the candidate for which the mark was not erased, scratched out or otherwise obliterated”; 3) “Petitioner’s Motion for Reconsideration is respectfully denied.”
P.S. Also see the tweet, below, by the head of the Virginia State Board of Elections…
The State Board of Elections will convene on Thursday, January 4 at 11:00 am. Unless the court system intervenes, the Board will draw a winner for #HD94. More details will be available on https://t.co/La8IrnBGiU.
— James Alcorn (@jamesalcorn) December 29, 2017
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