The historic Democratic sweep in Virginia last month claimed one more victory today.
In a recount of the election, Shelly Simonds won her race for Delegate in the lower chamber of the Legislature by one vote! The final count in the District was 11,608 to 11,607. On Election Day, the incumbent led by ten votes. The recount ended in a one-vote victory for the challenger. One more close election is still contested, where the margin of victory for the Republican was 82 votes, but 147 people received the wrong ballots. As the New York Times Reports, “A lawsuit requesting a new election is in the courts.”
“The Democratic wave that rose on Election Day in Virginia last month delivered a final crash on the sand Tuesday when a Democratic challenger defeated a Republican incumbent by a single vote, leaving the Virginia House of Delegates evenly split between the two parties.
“The victory by Shelly Simonds, a school board member in Newport News, was a civics lesson in every-vote-counts as she won 11,608 to 11,607 in a recount conducted by local election officials.
Ms. Simonds’s win means a 50-50 split in the State House, where Republicans had clung to a one-seat majority after losing 15 seats last month in a night of Democratic victories up and down the ballot, which were widely seen as a rebuke to President Trump. Republicans have controlled the House for 17 years.”
She was one of my endorsements because of her support for public schools. A school board member in Newport News, Virginia, she made education and support for public schools a major issue in her campaign.
Please remember next November: Every vote counts! Every single one.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Yeah. This is good news.
Vote at the polls.
And DO VOTE every day with your time and your money. What we do matters.
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There is definitely a good feeling on such victories. I am not a believer in voting straight for any one party but the behavior of the GOP politicians make it necessary to vote against them. You say the victory was a rebuke to President Trump; it is hard to see an individual more deserving of a rebuke at the ballot box.
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Also, if you can, vote ON ELECTION DAY if you’re in a state that uses only machine voting in early elections: you can get a paper ballot (still the most reliable & safest voting mechanism) on election day. I highly recommend reading the article, “Guardian of the Vote” by Jill Leovy in the December 16, 2017 Atlantic Magazine. It’s about how Barbara Simons, “a pioneering computer scientist (who) believes there is only one safe voting technology: paper.” She’s now 76, & “had been a pioneer in computer science at IBM Research at a time when few women not in the secretarial pool walked its halls.”
It really must be read, especially by Diane’s readers (& you, too, Diane…she sounds like you!)
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How sweet it is…
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Sounds like Delegate-elect Simonds offered something worth voting for. Give us more of that and we’ll be there.
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(I was an election judge in 2012). Virginia, thankfully, uses a combination of paper ballots and computers to tally the votes. The voter gets a paper ballot, which must be marked with indelible ink, with the pen on the table. The voter then places the paper ballot in the scanner, and the paper ballot is collected in a secure box.
(I am an IT professional). I believe that this is the best possible technology, available today. Bravo, to Virginia, for choosing this system.
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