CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Republican Delegate Brad White wound up stretching his narrow state legislative victory to a 13-vote margin over Democrat Nancy Guthrie after a full day of canvassing provisional and absentee ballots.
White’s race against Guthrie was the closest in the state coming out of Election Day, with only four votes separating the two at the time.
Final results came in shortly after 6 p.m. Monday. Canvassing started about 8:30 a.m.
Guthrie had been in the Legislature for a decade. From 2006 to 2012, she served in the seven-member 30th District. When that district was broken up, she served in the 36th District, starting in 2012.
As the counting appeared to be going White’s way, Guthrie said she was satisfied.
“It was so close they really did need to sit down and make sure those provisional ballots got counted,” she said. “Whether I win or lose, I’m OK, either way.”
White (R-Kanawha) finished third in the House of Delegates race in the 36th Delegate District while Guthrie finished fourth.
The top three win seats to the House. Incumbent Larry Rowe (D-Kanawha) and newcomer Andrew Robinson, also a Democrat, finished first and second.
After Election Day, there were only four votes separating White and Guthrie — 8,128 to 8,124.
Today, 183 new ballots were counted affecting the 36th District.
By the time it was all over, White had 61 more votes than he originally had. Guthrie had 42 votes than she originally had.
A canvassing board led by Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper went over the provisional and absentee ballots. Some of the absentee ballots were freshly delivered from the U.S. Post Office.
Guthrie was in attendance, along with lawyer Pat Maroney, a one-time chairman of the state Democratic Party.
White was not on site but had a campaign representative in attendance.
About 250 ballots under consideration were expected to have an effect on the race one way or another.
Somewhat tongue in cheek, Carper commented, “They seem to have this bad habit in West Virginia of allowing people to vote — which we kind of like.”
Carper later noted that the board tries very carefully to follow the law but tries to err on the side of counting votes.
Members of the canvassing board said they were going the extra mile to ensure what ballots should be counted. In some cases, they instructed employees of the county clerk’s office to call the Secretary of State’s office to ensure that a voter who had been deemed unregistered really was so.
There were some discussions of what should happen to ballots cast in the wrong precinct — particularly if those votes occurred in the same delegate district.
“It is paramount if there is the opportunity to count the ballot it should be counted,” Maroney said, going to a microphone and addressing the canvassing board. “The ballot would be exactly te same if they voted and went to the actual precinct.”
A representative of the American Civil Liberties Union also went to the microphone, citing case law to advocate for counting such votes.
White’s campaign’s position was that such votes should not be counted, said Mark Adkins, representing the campaign.
Carper said his concern would be, in effect, opening up the ability to vote at any precinct. For example, he asked, what if a thousand people surged into the voting precinct in Pratt? And would those people doing so disenfranchise the voters who actually live in that precinct?
“How can they handle it if people are told just to go anywhere to vote?” Carper asked. “How about other voters who never would get to vote?”
The issue was resolved when Kanawha County Prosecutor Charles Miller was summoned to the canvass and concluded that the law does not support counting out-of-precinct votes. The board then voted to not count the votes that fell under that category.
In another instance questioned by the canvassing board, six provisional ballots had been stuffed into one envelope when they should have been in individual envelopes.
Two poll workers for that precinct were brought in and sworn under oath. They said they had put all the provisional ballots into the same envelope because individual envelopes had not been available.
Carper was apologetic about bringing them in, called them heroes for being poll workers and asked them to please serve as poll workers again.
Poll workers, sworn in, saying 6 provisional ballots put in 1 envelope because no other envelopes were available in the moment pic.twitter.com/prdagYWLzx
— Brad McElhinny (@BradMcElhinny) November 14, 2016
Some absentee ballots were disputed because of their postmark dates. Other ballots were questioned because of the date the resident registered to vote.