House debates 46th District election results

Two minutes.

That’s about the length of time it took for the Spirit of Nonpartisan Politics to float out the House chambers at Wednesday’s opening of this General Assembly session.

The reason?

Republicans and Democrats couldn’t agree on the seating of the delegate for the 46th District in Alexandria. Or, as Del. Kenneth Plum for District 36 in Fairfax said, the debate waged nearly 45 minutes because “we’re talking about a precedent here.”

On Jan. 13 — just a day before the General Assembly convened — Democrat Charniele Herring and Republican Joe Murray faced each other in a special election for the seat of Del. Brian Moran, who resigned in mid-December. In a contest that yielded the participation of only 2,500 of 35,000 registered voters, Charniele won by 16 ballots.

The State Board of Elections has certified the results. But Murray has not conceded and is contesting the votes, as allowed by law.

“There are question marks about the absentee ballots … and whether every vote has been counted,” said Republican Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, District 8 in Salem, in response to the call of Democrat Minority Leader Ward Armstrong, District 10, which includes Patrick County, to seat Herring. “There’re enough questions that the results do hang in the balance … and it’s not unheard of to go a few days without representation [for that district].”

Worse, he said, would be to allow Herring to assume her delegate duties only to learn in a few days that Murray was the real winner. As such, the only proper course of action is to delay the swearing in until a recount can be finished, Griffith said.

Armstrong, meanwhile, questioned whether Griffith would advocate similarly if the delegate in-waiting hailed from the Republican Party.

Others from both sides of the political aisle offered additional comment.

“If we do not seat Ms. Herring,” said Democrat Del. David Englin, District 45, which includes parts of Alexandria, “the can of worms we are opening … is a situation where anybody in this body who is elected and has a State Board of Elections certification presented to the clerk could potentially be called into question.”

Republican Del. Bob Marshall, whose District 13 includes Prince William County, clarified that the Virginia Constitution requires the House act as “judge of the election and the qualification of its members,” and that a “wait of a few days does no harm. In fact, we’re supposed to be judges.”

And Del. Jeff Frederick, chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia and representative for Prince William’s District 52, reminded — in a back-and-forth question-answer segment with Plum that turned sarcastic at one point — the election took place just 17 hours ago.

“How many hours ago did the polls close?” Frederick asked, after Plum yielded him time to speak. When told 7 p.m., Frederick followed: “Isn’t that about 17 hours?”
The House did not have time to deal with the mathematical aspects of the issue, Plum replied.

In the end, the delegates voted to not consider the communications from the State Board of Elections on the election matter — a decision that, in effect, prevented Herring from taking her seat Wednesday.

Staff writer Cheryl Chumley can be reached at 703-670-1907.