Connolly, Fimian "confident" of win

Rep. Gerald  E. “Gerry” Connolly, D-11th, is claiming victory while his Republican opponent Keith Fimian said he is confident of a win.

The latest unofficial election results from the Virginia State Board of Elections have Connolly 921 votes ahead of Fimian.

“We’re very confident that we’ve won the race,” said Connolly campaign manager James Walkinshaw.

A Fimian campaign press release stated that Fimian was “confident” that he would be “declared the winner” after canvassing  is complete.

Vote counting was suspended in two Fairfax County precincts late Tuesday night because of  malfunctioning voting machines.

At that time, Connolly was 487 votes ahead.

Fairfax County voting officials finished the tally Wednesday morning, but the election won’t be official until it is certified on Nov. 22, said  state board of elections spokeswoman Susan Pollard.

Connolly and Fimian are currently less than one half of a percent apart, which means that Fimian could ask for a recount, but he has to wait until the election is certified, Pollard said.

“They have 10 days from certification — which should be Dec. 2 — to ask for a recount,”she said.

Pollard said candidates must ask for recounts — they don’t happen automatically.

“In Virginia there are no automatic recounts,”  Pollard said, reading from election rules. “Only the losing candidate can ask for a recount and only in cases where the difference between the apparent winning and losing candidates is one percent or less than the total votes cast for the two candidates.”

The total votes cast in the election was 226,789, accordint the state board of elections website.

Pollard said the canvassing process leading up to certification includes consolidating election results locally by reviewing votes to make sure everything squares up with election night totals.

 “They go back and review all of the information and the votes that were cast to make sure all of the provisional ballots were counted, to essentially collect the vote summaries from the precincts, recheck the total number of votes cast compared to the reported number and then they certify the results at the local level,” Pollard said.

Elections officers then compile  all of the election results and put together a “statement of results,” Pollard said.

The statement goes to the electoral boards, which then write and submit abstracts to the  state board of elections and the election is certified, Pollard said.

Senior reporter Keith Walker can be reached at 703-369-6751.