An apparent parking garage fire that forced the evacuation of the Fairfax County Government Center Tuesday evening could delay the counting of nearly 30,000 absentee ballots, according to county’s general registrar.
The government center, which is home to the registrar’s office and the central location for tallying absentee ballots, was largely evacuated around 9:30 p.m., General Registrar Jackie Harris said.
The fire could push off the counting of the some 28,000 absentee votes by at least a few hours after the evacuation, Harris said. That number of votes could seriously impact Virginia’s extremely tight Senate race, where Republican Sen. George Allen and Democrat Jim Webb remained within about 20,000 votes of each other late in the evening.
“We realize we have a very large chunk of votes outstanding,” Harris said.
A small contingent of election workers voluntarily remained in the building, and were prepared to secure the ballots and take them out of the building if necessary, she said.
Part of the Washington DC Examiner’s 2006 election coverage.
