Democrat Shelly Simonds sought Tuesday to have a court reverse its decision regarding a disputed ballot that has tossed the outcome of her race against Republican incumbent David Yancey in the 94th District - as well as control of the Virginia House of Delegates - into limbo.
Mrs. Simonds lawyers asked the three-judge panel in Newport News to reconsider their finding last week that the race ended in a tie and to declare her the winner. They also sent a letter to the Virginia State Board of Elections urging to delay a scheduled random drawing to decide the winner of the race in order to give the court time to consider their motion.
“A decision by the three-judge recount panel to suspend its order and reconsider its determination that the recount between Mrs. Simonds and David Yancey ended in a tie could moot the need for the Board to hold the drawing at all,” they said in the letter to the board of elections.
The state board of elections did not respond to an email seeking comment, but Mrs. Simonds’ legal team said there is no hurry for the board of elections to hold the tie-breaker given that members of the House of Delegates are set to be seated on Jan. 10.
“The court and the state board of elections have plenty of time,” said Ezra Reese, who is representing Mrs. Simonds. “The good news is we have lots of time before the seatings of candidates.”
Mrs. Simonds, meanwhile, told reporters in a conference all that more is at stake than just the outcome of this election.
“This is such an important issue for the state of Virginia,” she said. “At the end of the day this is really about the integrity of elections in Virginia.”
Mr. Yancey had a 10-vote lead following the November election. But after a recount of the 23,000 ballots cast, Mrs. Simonds emerged as the apparent winner by a single vote. A state court then ruled the counters had wrongly credited a ballot to her. Subtracting that vote left the two candidates tied with 11,608 votes each.
A random drawing has been scheduled Wednesday to decide who won the race.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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