Businessman Wayne Coleman, a Republican, requested a recount last week in the special election to replace Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam in Virginia’s sixth senate district. Nine votes separate Coleman and Democrat Del. Lynwood Lewis. The race is a key factor in determining the balance of power in the state Senate.
“It wasn’t supposed to be this close…[everyone] had written us off,” Coleman’s campaign manager Austin Chambers said. “But we think once the recount plays itself out and every legitimate vote that was cast at 7 p.m on January the seventh is counted you are going to have a different result and Wayne Coleman is going to be senator-elect.”
The Lewis campaign could not be reached for comment despite several attempts to contact them.
A combination of several factors should have led to Lewis winning the election by a wide margin — at least wider than nine votes — Center for Politics spokesperson Geoffrey Skelley said.
“Honestly Lewis should have probably put this away,” Skelley said. “It never should have been close, given that he was an elected official and in the House of Delegates and should have been able to raise more money.”
Skelley said the special status of the election, rather than mistakes by the Lewis campaign, is one of the main reasons the election was so close. Republicans are more likely to vote in special elections than Democrats, though he added that voter turnout in both parties is usually low during these elections.
“People may not realize this, but oftentimes the final election result is not exactly what the votes said because of human error, miscounting — there can be a lot of explanations for this,” Skelley said. “But usually the margin of race is usually not close enough for that to matter.”
The Coleman campaign submitted a recount request to the court Thursday and expects to have a preliminary hearing with a three-judge panel sometime in the coming week.
“This thing is far from over and we’re going to let the process play itself out,” Chambers said. “We think it’s only fair to make sure the election of the sixth district is fair and precise. That’s all we’re asking for.”
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