Both sides are claiming victory in the House race in Virginia’s 11th district, which may be the closest contest in the country. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Democrat Gerry Connolly is leading Republican Keith Fimian by just 487 votes.
The three-member electoral board of Faixfax County is currently in the midst of canvassing the election results, a spokeswoman for the country government confirmed to TPMMuckraker. One of the individuals sitting on that board is Hans von Spakovsky, a Bush-era Justice Department official who came under fire from Democrats after allegations that he helped politicize the Civil Rights Division and placed an undue emphasis on voter fraud and identification that critics say often suppresses minority voter turnout.
Merni Fitzgerald, spokeswoman for the Fairfax County government, said that von Spakovsky and the two other members of the Elections Board were in the midst of the canvassing process, which she expected to run at least until the end of business on Wednesday.
Once the canvassing process wraps up, the board will take a look at around 100 provisional ballots from around the county, said Fitzgerald. They would then move on to certifying the results once the canvassing process is complete, she said.
Controversy swirled when von Spakovsky was first appointed to the elections board earlier this year. Since then he earned more attention when he voted to direct the Board of Elections registrar to not distribute voter registration forms in languages other than English
A message left for von Spakovsky on his cell phone was not immediately, and the Fimian and Connolly campaigns did not respond to requests for comment. Follow results in the race here.
Late update: As of 11:16 a.m., Connolly was ahead by 820 votes in the unofficial tally. Fimian’s campaign manager told the Washington Post that the Republican will not make any decisions about a recount until the canvassing is complete, which could take several days.
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