By now, you’ve probably heard that the votes in the 21st House of Delegates district have been counted and that Republican Ron Villanueva has been declared the winner by a scant 13 votes.
I received the following statement from the campaign of Bobby Mathieson:
Yesterday, more votes got counted in the 21st District House of Delegates race because of an open and transparent process we fought to let run its course. After examination of rejected absentee and provisional ballots, seven more voices were heard in this close and important election, and the vote totals have changed.
Unfortunately, the Virginia Beach Electoral Board decided, at their own discretion, NOT to count four absentee ballots. These voters did what they needed to do – signed and dated their ballots, and had someone witness them. But the Virginia Beach Electoral Board chose to silence those voices on a technicality. That is not the way you encourage citizens to participate in the foundation of democracy – our electoral process – and it is tragic.
There are still open questions in this race, and it is in the best interest of the voters of the 21st District to seek a recount. Bobby Mathieson will continue to fight to ensure every single legally cast ballot gets counted in an open and transparent manner. As a lifelong public servant, he will always stand for good government, for transparency, and for serving the public interest. Close elections like this provide citizens the opportunity to shine a bright light on the electoral process, learn important lessons, and emerge better prepared for the next election.
Once the results are certified, Mathieson will have the opportunity to ask for a recount. Since the margin is so small, the city will have to pay for it.
The State Board of Elections website shows the difference to be 14, not 13, votes, out of a total of 15,365 votes cast. The vote total represents less than 33% of those registered in the district. Two things jump out at me.
First – more people participated in this election than in 2007. The total votes cast two years ago was 7,725, which was just over 18% of registered voters. That the number of votes cast almost doubled says that people were paying attention enough to get to the polls. And not just Republicans, either. The number of votes cast for Mathieson alone this year almost matched the total votes cast two years ago. This being a gubernatorial year, you would expect higher turnout, but I didn’t expect it to be almost double.
Second – wonder if those 33 people who cast write-in votes wished they could have a do-over?
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
The only thing tragic is that the taxpayers will have to pay for Mathieson to keep his campaign going after Election Day.
Sad to see a “lifelong public servant” attack the Electoral Board members and blame his loss on them.
It is nice to see that Villanueva’s involvement in this campaign brought such a better turnout.
How dare he ask for what he’s entitled to!
Entitlements again?
I would like to see Del. Mathieson being a former police officer and “lifelong public servant” push this hard for his former aide be brought to justice.
I think people get turned off by the back and forth attacking. This was a heated race and if people were motivated enough to spend time doing a write-in I doubt that they were satisfied with either candidate. I thought both candidate were great. But I did think Mathieson could have done a bit more in his 2 years in the house. In contrast, Bouchard did so much in 2 years. Though I am a Dem, I think Villanueva will be wonderful addition to the House of Delegates.
In 2003, when John Welch had opposition and there were no statewide races, 5997 people voted in the 21st district election. In 2005, when Welch was unopposed and there were statewide races, there were 11317 votes cast. For Virginia Beach as a whole, turnout was 44404 in 2003 and 97644 in 2005. Near-double turnout is not unprecedented.
No, but the word was that there was depressed turnout for Dems. I think this race shows that wasn’t necessarily the case.
I would love to know who got those 33 write-in votes.
Probably Mickey Mouse or some other worthy candidate.
In Chesapeake, I wrote in NOTA for some of the Constitutional Officers.
None Of The Above is a way to vote, but indicate that none of the candidates was worthy of a vote.