Virginia Senate race could hang on single Louisa precinct

[Derechos]

Louisa County elections officials will examine eight provisional ballots and voting records from an entire 1,398-vote precinct Thursday afternoon as they try to close the books on a pivotal state Senate race that will determine whether Republicans or Democrats control the chamber in Richmond.

State elections officials were not sure if other jurisdictions in the 17th Senate District had completed the normal post-election process of reviewing provisional ballots, calculations and tapes from voting machines. But officials from both parties were under the impression that most, if not all, of the votes had been reviewed.

Republican Bryce Reeves led Sen. R. Edward Houck (D-Spotsylvania) by 224 votes as of the latest State Board of Elections figures. Reeves’s election-night lead of 86 votes widened Wednesday after a “keying error” was discovered in Culpeper.

The Republican Party of Virginia, under the mistaken impression that just a handful of Spotsylvania provisional ballots were outstanding, issued a news release Thursday morning claiming that the canvas was over.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/virginia-politics/post/virginia-senate-race-could-hang-on-single-louisa-precinct/2011/11/10/gIQAFn068M_blog.html