RICHMOND, Va. -- While the Virginia Primary polls may be closed and most of the candidates chosen for this November's elections, political experts say the next few days are key to figuring out who won close races, like the race of the Republican nomination in Virginia's 5th Congressional District.
"Today is really important, because that's when all the local registrar's re-report the results. And we really understand exactly what happened here," CBS 6 political analyst Dr. Bob Holsworth explained. "We had a lot of uncertainty last night, about these estimated ballots coming in. At one point, at 11 p.m., they said it was 785 votes ahead for McGuire. A few minutes later, it became 300 votes ahead for McGuire. So there's a lot of confusion out there right now. And I think today will help to sort of, in some ways, get past that confusion, and really get a sense of what the exact numbers are, in that in that election last night."
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But while races may be called, important work is also being done at local levels to ensure the results of the election.
"What's going to happen today is there's going to be a canvass. And basically, all the local registrars, who reported results are going to double check their results, and they're going to report them again," Dr. Bob said. "And typically in elections, if there's any real shift that occurs today, because maybe a number was transposed in the heat of the evening or something like that. Usually you might wind up with more votes changing now than you would in a recount."
So what will candidates be focusing on going forward?
Dr. Bob Holsworth said that for key races, like the Senate race between incumbent Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican Hung Cao, candidates cannot let up.
"I think that you know, the important thing for Tim Kaine is that he's not complacent that even if he looks like he has a lead in the polls, if that shows up at five or six or seven points. It's really very important for every political figure particularly in this very dynamic and uncertain political environment, not to take any voter for granted, and to really work very hard. The Democrats saw in 2021 that the vote in rural Virginia for them just totally collapsed. And so I think Virginia is no longer a reliable six or eight-point Democratic state. The gap is closed. And it's very important for the Democratic candidates to recognize that."
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