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The Charlotte County write-in race winners are now official, with new town council members elected in both Drakes Branch and Phenix. 

We start with what may be the smallest election victory this year, at least in our region. In Phenix, voters were asked to elect five town council members. Emily Lawhorne, Amanda Letterman, Gladys Reid and Rodney Childress were all on the ballot. The fifth council member had to be chosen via write-in ballots. And in that race, Larry Wilson was the only person to receive two votes or more, out of the 13 write-ins. Wilson received two votes and so he’ll take his place on council. 

Meanwhile, in Drakes Branch, there was one town council seat on the ballot and no one filed to run, meaning it too became a write-in race. With 15 of the 18 write-in ballots, Thomas Pettus won the election. 

Part of the delay in getting ballot results comes from the fact there were so many write-ins, early votes and provisional ballots to go through. In Virginia, if you completely forget where your polling place is, you can still cast what’s known as a provisional ballot. That’s used when a voter’s eligibility or registration status can’t be immediately verified at the polling station. Those ballots are not counted on Election Day. First, the registrar’s office has to confirm a) where the person’s polling place is, b) that they haven’t already cast a ballot there and c) that the person in question is eligible to vote. And to do that, they need help from the state. 

Delays beyond Charlotte County write-in

The issue has been that provisional ballots can’t be counted or rejected until after the Virginia Department of Elections (DOE) sends over the duplicate report. Just like the name says, that report confirms if a provisional ballot is a duplicate or not. It doesn’t get sent out, however, until all counties turn in their requests. Once each county reports in about provisional ballots, those ballots are matched against state records and it’s determined if they should be counted. There was a deadline of Monday, Nov. 11 at 5 p.m. to turn in provisionals. 

The State Board of Elections met at noon Monday, Nov. 18 to certify the results from Election Day.