The nation continues to hurtle towards the 2018 midterm elections, with Democrats going into those elections with a clear advantage over Republicans. In generic Congressional ballot polling, Democrats currently enjoy a leading margin of about 11 percent.
There are, even still, numerous stops on the way to this year’s midterm elections, including an array of State House races in Virginia that were supposed to all be concluded last November. One of those elections, the one in House District 94 in Newport, Virginia, ended so close that the Democratic candidate, a woman named Shelly Simonds, requested a recount, and after that recount, she actually came out one vote ahead of her Republican challenger David Yancey.
That wasn’t the end of the story, however. A ballot that had marks next to both candidates’ names but a line through the mark next to Simonds as if to cross out the mark was eventually counted for Yancey. That made the two candidates tied, and Virginia state law dictates that the winner of such an election be decided by “lot.”
This Thursday, Yancey was declared the winner of the election after the slip of paper with his name on it was the one drawn out of a film canister.
— Mallory Noe-Payne (@MalloryNoePayne) January 4, 2018
That’s not where the story ends, though. Yancey’s victory means that Republicans now have 51 seats in the State House and have thus managed to hold on to a majority.
This Thursday in Virginia, there was a victory for those who would seek to undermine the rights of interests like women and minorities while bolstering the rights of interests like those of violent people with firearms and corporate leaders.
There is still one other Virginia State House seat being contended, with Democratic voters having requested a new election in their district and a Republican was certified as the winner after it came out that some voters had been given the wrong ballot.
