State Sen. Mark Herring, Virginia's apparent AG-electby KenIn the end I decided to go conventional and lead with a photo of Virginia State Sen. Mark Herring, the Democratic provisional winner of the race for Virginia state attorney general. Most of the way, though, my plan was to lead with the tweet reproduced below, with the caption (from Alex Rogers's Time "Swampland" report (see below): "While Brian W. Schoeneman, a Republican member of the Fairfax Electoral Board, protested through Twitter that all [absentee ballots] had been counted, upon further review, state election officials found that a tabulation machine had broken and the votes on a replacement machine weren't counted."Oh, I assume there'll be a recount, since state law provides that if the margin of victory is less than ½ percent the state pays for a recount, which means it should be more or less automatic. And especially in the case of a result this close, everyone should have an interest in getting the vote count correct.However, as we can already see, there's one group of Virginians that have no interest in getting the count, but only getting it their way. You could say it's just coincidence that the major vote-counting errors that have turned up so far all favored the Republican candidate. What you can't say is that Virginia Republicans gave rat's ass about anything except getting the result they want. Which brings us to my nominee for the man who most closely represents what the Republican Party stands for in the year 2013, imbecile-liar Brian W. Schoeneman.Consider this portion of from Alex Rogers's Time "Swampland" report, "With 164 Vote Attorney General Victory, Virginia Democrats Sweep State":
Episodes occurred in Fairfax and Richmond counties, two of the most populous in the state. Among other election observers, Michael McDonald, an associate professor of government and politics at George Mason University, found that absentee turnout from Fairfax didn't match his prediction. While Brian W. Schoeneman, a Republican member of the Fairfax Electoral Board, protested through Twitter that all had been counted, upon further review, state election officials found that a tabulation machine had broken and the votes on a replacement machine weren't counted. Around 3,000 votes were then reviewed, and a large majority went to Herring, who at that point was losing in the unofficial tally. "I don’t know if they would have caught it," said McDonald, who joked that Schoeneman "is going to regret for all of his life" that "infamous tweet."In Richmond, state officials failed to enter more than 200 votes, throwing the aforementioned 17-vote lead for Obenshain to the razor-slim 117-vote margin for Herring. In this case, officials realized their mistake well before it hit social media.These errors have an easier chance of being reported and caught by outside observers in Virginia, due to the state's "unusually transparent" electoral process, according to McDonald, because the state releases not only overall numbers, but also breakdowns in how a vote is cast (including absentee) and in what precinct. That openness, combined with the high level of interest due to the closeness of the campaign, can lead to a messy, but effective evaluation."These are common errors for certification across the entire country," says McDonald. "Usually you don't get to see into the factory where the sausage is being made."
Now, I don't consider this race a lock, as long as there are still votes to be counted. After all, the Republican Art and Science of Election-Stealing now goes into extra innings. There's always the pre-Election Day Phase (throwing up as many obstacles as possible to The Others' voting for The Others' candidates while making it as easy as possible for Our Voters), the Election Day Operation (the crunch-day version of the same thing, which runs up till the last polling place closes, or the last Other voter has been sent away without voting), and the Vote Miscounting Drill (for those tension-fraught hours, or if necessary days, before a result is announced). If you still haven't nudged the result your way, you may still have a chance if you can slide it into the Recount Circle.Some of the stuff the R's came up with this time was truly inspired, like ruling -- after all the safely Republican counties had already resolved their lesser problems with provisional ballots -- that anyone who had cast a provisional ballot and had hopes of, you know, having it counted, would have to appear in person to beg for that indulgence. You'd think the folks who came up with that one would be under lock and key by now, but not in the Commonwealth of Virginia.To belabor the obvious, the problem with imbecile-liar Brian W. Schoeneman isn't that he was wrong about all those votes having been counted, although it's hard to see how that plays in his favor. It's not even in hoping that his candidates prevailed; that goes with the territory. The problem is that he was presented with the powerfully suspicious circumstance detected by Professor McDonald of the near-certain undercount in what I believe I heard described on the radio as the most heavily Democratic part of the state's most populous and most heavily Democratic county. An official with a modicum of competence or honesty (either one would have done it) would have taken the opportunity to recheck his ground. Instead imbecile-liar Brian W. Schoeneman doubled down on his imbecility and dishonesty, not to mention his incompetence.Professor McDonald suggests that imbecile-liar Brian W. Schoeneman is going to regreat "that infamous tweet" for "all the rest of his life." That's being much too kind.Nothing will change the fact that enough Virginians voted for statewide candidates who are certifiably insane and thugs to boot to make the gubernatorial race close and the AG race micro-close. Of course the Democrats countered by serving up a gubernatorial candidate nobody could possibly vote for without holding his/her nose. That's a problem for another day. Today's problem is finding a way to have Republicans barred from participating in any aspect of the polling and vote-counting operation. They just can't be trusted.Ask imbecile-liar Brian W. Schoeneman.#