VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The recount for the 85th District in Virginia's House of Delegates is officially underway.
After a preliminary hearing Monday, the official recount for the race between Del. Alex Askew (D) and Karen Greenhalgh (R) started Thursday morning at the Office of Voter Registration at the city's Municipal Complex.
Republicans officially took control of 50 seats in the House of Delegates following the November elections, and currently hold leads in the two Hampton Roads races headed to recounts.
If Republicans win one of the two recounts, the party will flip control of the House of Delegates.
Greenhalgh leads the race by 127 votes, but the vote total is still below a 0.5% margin of victory, which is within the threshold allowed for a state-funded recount upon a candidate's request.
“People across the center of the political bell curve, believe transparency and fairness is more important than the end result," David Belote, the Vice-Chair of the Virginia Beach Electoral Board, told 13News Now.
Roughly 28,000 people cast ballots in the race. Thursday, election stakeholders as well as representatives from both Democratic and Republican parties were present for the recounting of these ballots.
For those ballots that could not be processed electronically, representatives from both political parties will examine the ballot to come to a conclusion on the voter's intent.
If parties could not come to an agreement, the contested ballot will be turned over to a judge-panel for later examination.
As of Thursday night, Belote noted that didn't seem to be the norm for this recount.
“16 out of 1000," Belote said, noting the number of physically reviewed ballots at one precinct in particular. "Of those 16 for that first precinct, the reviewers agreed on all of them. So that precinct was done."
According to Jeff Marks, the Chair of the Electoral Board, there was only one contested ballot among both political parties as of Thursday evening.
The recounting process itself only takes a day, which Marks and Belote noted would keep them there most of Thursday. Those results aren't officially certified until a Friday morning hearing in front of a three-judge panel.
Afterwards, the only option left after the recount has been certified would be for a candidate to contest the election results.
“Once that order is entered, it’s not appealable," Marks said.