Herring refused seat, Murray files for recount

The Republican-majority House voted 54-41 against seating Herring, arguing that the results of the election — which were certified Wednesday morning by the Virginia State Board of Elections — could be overturned by the recount.

Herring took 1,344 votes to Murray’s 1,328. Candidates can petition for a recount if the difference is less than 1 percent of the votes cast for the two major political parties. Because the margin of victory was between 1 percent and 0.5 percent, Murray’s campaign will foot the $160 bill for the recount.

Minority Leader Ward Armstrong, D-Henry, made a motion to seat Herring, calling her “the duly elected winner of that election,” and arguing that not seating her would leave the 46th District without representation.

Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, said the close margin and expected recount was reason to delay the seating, arguing that it would be worse to have someone on the floor casting votes who wasn’t elected than to leave the seat temporarily vacant.

Murray said Wednesday he was “honored” by the success of his grassroots campaign in the Democratic-leaning district. “One of the things I realized from this campaign is that Alexandria is a city of neighborhoods,” he said.

Herring, though, argued that she should be seated.

“The harm is that there is a certification process here and the people of the 46th District made a vote … and the people of the 46th District will not be represented,” she told the Associated Press.

Alexandria registrar Tom Parkins said the 6 percent turnout for the special election was a bit higher than expected. But there were no issues with the counting of ballots, he said, and the board finished at about midnight before sending the results to Richmond with a state trooper.

“So it all went routine,” he said. “The unusual thing is it was very close.”

Examiner Staff Writer William C. Flook contributed to this report.