UPDATE: Monday, 4pm
Beyer tells C-VILLE that a review of Saturday’s ballots confirms a victory for Dede Smith in the Charlottesville Democratic Primary. Beyer says he will not run as an independent. Smith was not immediately available for comment.
Original report below:
On Saturday, local Democratic voters cast more than 2,500 ballots for three candidates to represent their party in the November 8 general election for City Council. Ultimately, incumbent Satyendra Huja, school board member Kathy Galvin and former school board rep-turned-dredging advocate Dede Smith won nominations—the last by a margin of roughly 30 votes.
The runner-up? Developer Paul Beyer, who reiterated a call this morning for the Charlottesville Democratic Committee to stick to its primary rules and conduct a second ballot count. Beyer said the ballot count process was "expedited" because "no one knew how slim the margin would be."
In an e-mail to media, Beyer asked that 200 "disputed ballots"—those where voters’ marks strayed from ballot procedures—be reexamined. Jim Nix, Charlottesville Democratic Committee co-chair, said that disputed ballots numbered less than 250, but only 30 or so ballots among those were indiscernible.
"Of those, we were able to discern voter intent on 213 of them, so we were able to use them in the count," he told C-VILLE. According to other reports, Nix said the committee would discuss completion of the second ballot count.
Nix also said that Beyer was welcome to view the 30 indiscernible ballots.
"If he wants to look at them, we won’t object to that," said Nix. Beyer told C-VILLE this morning that he would "probably take a look at them."
With the deadline for candidate paperwork tomorrow, C-VILLE asked Beyer whether he would consider running as an independent, but Beyer said he had no plans to do so.
