Multiple Recounts Could Be Filed In Fairfax Mayor, City Council Races

FAIRFAX CITY, VA — When Catherine S. Read declared victory Tuesday night in the Fairfax City mayor's race, only 118 votes separated her from challenger Sang H. Yi, according to unofficial results from the State Board of Elections.

Early Wednesday afternoon, the City of Fairfax Election Office reported that it still needed to count 149 provisional ballots and 23 by-mail ballots dropped off at polling places on Tuesday. In addition, the office will also need to count any eligible by-mail ballots postmarked Nov. 8 it receives by noon on Nov. 14.

Only after all of those ballots are counted will the election office be able to officially certify the 2022 election results by the Nov. 15 deadline.

With eight out of nine precincts reporting as of 8:10 p.m. on Tuesday, Read declared victory based on the 4,757 votes (50.45 percent) she received compared to Yi's 4,639 (49.16 percent). That 1.26 percent difference is more than the 1 percent required in Virginia for a losing candidate to file for a recount.

"Virginia law allows the apparent losing candidate to request a recount," Brenda Cabrera, the city’s director of elections and general registrar, told Patch on Wednesday. "The margin for recount is 1 percent. At a margin less than 0.5 percent, the locality would fund the recount. At a margin between 0.5 percent and 1 percent, the candidate requesting the recount must pay the expenses of the recount."

But, with a total of 172 provisional and mailed-in ballots already accounted for and an unknown number of eligible mailed-in ballots yet to be received, the slim 118-vote margin between the two candidates could shrink to where Yi has more votes than Read or the percentage separating them falls below the 1 percent needed to call for a recount.

Related: Read Claims Victory Over Yi In Fairfax With 8 Of 9 Precincts Counted

Shortly after the election office released its provisional and by-mail ballot numbers on Wednesday, Patch reached out to both campaigns for comment.

"I was pleased to accept Councilman Sang Yi’s concession call at 8:21 p.m. last night when it appeared clear that the lead I had was 1.26%, outside of the scope for a recount allowed for by Fairfax City ordinance," Read said, in response to Patch's request. "We had a pleasant conversation and he wished me well. I understand there are still 149 provisional ballots and absentee ballots still arriving, so we will certainly accept the remaining process to certify election results and give Registrar Brenda Cabrera time to count all the votes. However, it is my belief that the lead percentage will not decrease as those votes are counted. I am sure Councilman Yi will also respect the integrity of our electoral process and we will see what the final vote total is on Monday, 11/14. Thank you to all of my supporters, friends, volunteers and community for supporting me in this campaign. I am ready to focus on the needs of the whole city and I look forward to working with our incoming Council next year.

This story will be updated if and when Yi's campaign chooses to comment.

The possibility of Read not being elected mayor after all votes are certified is not something new in Fairfax City elections.

In May 2016, Jeffrey Greenfield initially lost to incumbent Fairfax City Councilmember Nancy Loftus by three votes. After filing a request for a recount with the Fairfax County Circuit Court, Greenfield was declared the victor by a three-vote margin following a recount.

Coincidentally, Greenfield was among the six city council candidates on Tuesday to receive the most votes in the race to fill six empty council seats. The same provisional and mailed-in ballots the election office still needs to count before the Nov. 15 certification could trigger recounts in that race as well.

Here are the unofficial results with eight of nine precincts reporting as of 8:43 p.m., on Tuesday:

• So P. Lim* with 6,246 votes (15.35 percent)
• D.T. "Tom" Ross* with 5,228 votes (12.85 percent)
• Jon R. Stehle Jr.* with 4,935 votes (12.13 percent)
• Kate G. Doyle Feingold with 4,509 votes (11.08 percent)
• Jeffrey C. Greenfield with 4,158 (10.22 percent)
• Anahita N. "Ana" Renner with 4,123 (10.13 percent.
• Billy Bates, 4,116 (10.12 percent)
• Joseph D. Harmon* 3,976 votes (9.77 percent)
• Craig S. Salewski 3,139 (7.72 percent).

As votes were coming in on Tuesday night, Greenfield, Renner, and Bates swapped the final two spots on the six-seat city council.

With the current numbers, Stehle, Doyle Feingold, Greenfield, Renner, Bates, and Harmon are all within 1 percentage point of the candidate who finished ahead them. So, any of those candidates could file for a recount, depending on how the final provisional and mailed-in ballots alter the vote totals.

When Read's campaign announced her victory on Tuesday night, it said that Yi had called to Read to concede. Following that announcement, Patch reached out to Yi and his campaign manager by email for confirmation that he had conceded. As of 3 p.m. on Wednesday, no response was received.