LTE: Virginia Recount Has Been Exercise of Civility

On Tuesday, December 2013, I took part in the Re-Count for the disputed Virginia Attorney General's race. This was a civics lesson in Democracy and showed that Democrats and Republicans CAN work together for a common cause--to make sure that all votes count!!!  --use the optical scan ballots to vote since there is a paper trail that can be used should a Re-count be necessary. Lesson learned. 

There were 15 teams of two people each (one from each party). The teams were selected by the Loudoun County Electoral Board. There were also two observers sitting on the other side of the table from us(one for the Democrats and one for the Republicans). We received training the day before that was conducted by the Loudoun County Electoral Board and we were sworn in by the Clerk of the Court of Loudoun County before starting our work. We were told to turn off all cell phones or at least put them on SILENT and to not to have any side conversations but to stick to the job at hand. We were also instructed not to have any direct contact with the Observers, even during the five-minute breaks we were allowed between counting. If the Observers had any questions, they were supposed to direct them to us through the designated Re-count Coordinators from the Loudoun County Electoral Board. We worked in a very cordial way and there was no animosity---the way it should be in any election!!! We ran the Optical Scan ballots (we used to call these paper ballots but VA Law calls them Optical Scan ballots) from the 5 November election. The Observers stood next to us to make sure that all ballots were run through the scanner. The ballots that the scanner rejected were then placed in a tub to be reviewed by the team. Our team was able to Re-count five precincts. There were no CONTESTED ballots. We found many ballots where no candidate was selected. 

Note that we took the numbers from the TSX/DRE (touch screen) and recorded them on the Re-count Statement of results (SOR) since there is nothing to Re-count here. Whereas we did have the Optical scanned ballots to review.

The Re-count is supposed to be completed this week and results certified Friday.
 
Anthony “Tony” V. Fasolo
LTC, USA (ret)
Election Official
Leesburg, VA