Dem's Webb says he won Virginia. After two Prez elections with corrupt voting machines, I would like to see this come out in his favor. Dems can take Senate with Montana Victory,

Date:   11/8/2006 2:37:22 PM ( 18 y ago)

Webb Claims Victory in VA Senate Race

By Lisa Rein and Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, November 8, 2006; 2:34 PM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/08/AR20061108014...


RICHMOND, Nov. 8 -- Virginia Democratic Senate candidate James Webb claimed the title of "Senator-elect" today even as Republican incumbent Sen. George Allen declined to concede a race he was losing by 7,146 votes.

Webb advisers said he will announce members of his transition team later this afternoon. Webb leads Allen by less than three tenths of a percent out of 2.3 million votes that were cast Tuesday.

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"There's never been a Senate election where a candidate with the margin of this size, or for that matter even smaller . . . has not emerged as the next Senator," said former Gov. Mark R. Warner (D), who is advising Webb.

At a Richmond news conference, Allen adviser Ed Gillespie said the senator will wait for the results of a statewide process called a canvass, in which the preliminary tallies from Tuesday night are confirmed during the next several days. Gillespie said the GOP believes that process could change the vote tally in Allen's favor.

"Let the process play itself out in a dignified manner," Gillespie, a former national Republican Party chairman, said at a news conference in front of the Virginia party headquarters. "The votes need to be accurately counted. Only at the end of that process is a winner declared."

Gillespie said teams of volunteer lawyers have fanned out across Virginia and will be monitoring the canvass as it unfolds. Local electoral boards are required to finish their canvass by the close of business on Monday and report those results to state officials.

Allen has not decided whether he will ask for a recount once the election results become official on Nov. 27, when they are certified by the state Board of Elections.

Gillespie described Allen's mood as "realistic" and said the senator and former governor believes Webb's lead could very well dissolve, citing as an example Stafford County, which reported 1,969 votes for Webb last night, only to change the tally today to 541 votes.

Lee Goodman, an attorney for the state Republican Party, also described other election day problems that included machine breakdown and power failures in some precincts in Richmond and Charlotte County, although he did not give more specifics.

"Then there are the simple mistakes that can be made by tired election workers," Goodman said.

Warner said Webb's advisers have not heard of any serious mistakes at polling places. He said Democrats have also assembled a large team of lawyers and other volunteers who will be observing the process at electoral boards across the state. But he said he does not expect any problems.

"Not only do we have great confidence in the Virginia process," he said. "Never had a race change from the winner on election night."

Allen aides tried to put the best face on Webb's narrow lead.

"The fact is, we always knew this was going to be close," Gillespie said. "It's a closely divided commonwealth. We're not surprised by the outcome."

Allen was not expected to make public comments today and was headed from Richmond to his home in Fairfax County, aides said.

Last night, Allen showed no signs of giving up. In Richmond, he emerged after midnight to tell his supporters to "Stay strong for freedom . . . and accuracy in elections will prevail." He said he would call on them in the days ahead.

Shortly after 1 a.m. today, after he took the lead in the count, Webb told supporters at a Tysons Corner hotel: "I'd also like to say the votes are in, and we won. This is a great moment for all of us."

___
Democrats take Montana

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/us/politics/09senatecnd.html?ei=5087%0A&em=...

Election 2006 Washington Education

Democrat Wins Senate Race in Montana

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By CHRISTINE HAUSER
Published: November 8, 2006

The Democratic challenger in Montana, Jon Tester, won the race for the United States Senate today, leaving only Virginia to face an uncertain outcome in a tight midterm election race that is not expected to be decided for days or weeks.
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Mr. Tester’s victory means that the Senate will at the least be tied 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, but effectively the Republicans would remain in control in that case because Vice President Dick Cheney has a tie-breaking vote.

The battle for the Senate drew attention today after the House came out clearly in Democratic hands after Tuesday’s election. But the uncertainty of the race in Virginia — and until earlier today Montana — left open the prospect of vote recounts that were likely to be lengthy.

After new figures pushed his lead to about 3,000 votes around midday, Mr. Tester declared victory, but the Republican, Senator Conrad Burns, who has been trailing his challenger with more than 99 percent of the state’s precincts reporting, had not conceded. Mr. Tester said in a live television interview with CNN today that he was “absolutely” declaring himself the winner. “We feel good about winning this election,” he said. “We feel good about going to Washington, D.C.”

But Mr. Tester said: “The vote totals are the vote totals. The one who gets the highest number of votes wins, and we did.”

Mr. Tester said that attention now needed to be paid to such issues as health care, the war in Iraq and energy self-sufficiency.

“It has been a very challenging race, but the race is over now,” he said. “Now is the time to work together and move the country forward.”

State electoral officials in Montana had said voting equipment problems meant that a final count might not be available until late today at the soonest, but Mr. Tester, the president of the state Senate and a farmer, had voiced confidence early on of victory over Mr. Burns, who has served three terms. Mr. Burns has not yet made any concession remarks.

In Virginia, any candidate trailing by 1 percent or less can request a recount. Early this afternoon, with 99 percent of precincts reporting, Jim Webb, the Democratic challenger, led Senator George Allen, a Republican, by less than 8,000 votes out of more than 2.3 million cast — a difference of about one-third of a percent.

Mr. Webb, claimed victory over Mr. Allen, early this morning, but Ed Gillespie, an adviser to Mr. Allen, said that the campaign had no plans to concede, and that the voters of Virginian needed to be respected and their votes counted.

In Montana, for most of the morning, Senator Burns trailed Mr. Tester by about 1,500 votes, which represented slightly less than the one-half percent needed for a candidate to be granted a recount simply by asking for one.

But approaching midday, new votes were recorded that drove Mr. Tester’s lead to about 3,000, and the margin above the half-percent line. According to a fact sheet released by Secretary of State Brad Johnson, candidates in races with a wider margin can be granted recounts only by presenting evidence to a state district court that persuades a judge that the count may be wrong.

The votes from one precinct remained uncounted, from a county whose population is smaller than Mr. Tester’s margin.

Bowen Greenwood, a spokesman for Mr. Brad Johnson, said statewide recounts in Montana were rare — the only one in recent memory concerned the Democratic primary for superintendent of public instruction in 2000. In Virginia, a statewide recount was conducted just last year. In both states, the process can be lengthy. In Virginia, according to a statement issued this month by the state’s Board of Elections, no request for a recount may be filed until the vote is certified, which is scheduled to happen this year on Nov. 27.

The races in Virginia and Montana were both complicated by the presence of third-party candidates who drew more votes than the margin separating the two major-party candidates.

In Virginia, Glenda Parker of the Independent Green Party had slightly more than 1 percent of the vote this morning. Ms. Parker, a former Pentagon budget analyst, had no affiliation with the national Green Party. She ran on two issues, calling for cuts in the federal deficit and the construction of a high-speed rail network to cut dependence on oil.

Late in the campaign, when she was attracting about 2 percent support in opinion surveys, she considered dropping out and endorsing either Mr. Webb or Mr. Allen, but then changed her mind.

In Montana, Stan Jones, running as a Libertarian, had 2.6 percent of the vote this morning.

Sheryl Stolberg contributed reporting from Washington, D.C., and John O’Neil reported from New York. Sean Hamill contributed reporting.


Wow!!
Libermann wins as independent

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/nyregion/08lieberman.html?_r=1&n=Top%2fRefe...


 

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