The 2013 General Election results for Governor are now official. The certified results from the Virginia State Board of Elections are Terry McAuliffe (D) with 1,069,789 (47.75%), Ken Cuccinelli II (R) with 1,013,354 (45.23%), Robert Sarvis (L) with 146,084 (6.52%), and 11,087 write-in votes (0.49%). This is a Democratic pickup resulting from a popular vote swing of almost 20% relative to the 2009 Gubernatorial Election. Cuccinelli’s best county was Scott (75.6%) and best city was Poquoson (67.7%) – he also carried the populous Virginia Beach City with 47.6%. McAuliff’s best county was Charles City County with 61.3% and best city was Petersburg with 77.8%. McAuliffe’s overall margin of 56,435 votes is less than his margin in the single county of Fairfax, where he won 58.4% to 36.2% (a 68,065 vote margin). Robert Sarvis had his best showing in Alleghany County (11.8%) and the city of Covington (12.6%).
Monthly Archives: November 2013
Atlas adds 8,510 Election 2000 Votes for President
Upon a detailed review of all official county election publications for the state of New York 2000 General Election results for President, the Atlas database has been updated with 8,510 more votes not included in the New York State Board of Elections 2000 General Election certified results. Overall, the atlas results in New York include 44 corrections to the certified results by county for President. This database update replaces the official certified vote counts in three counties with those published in the following documents: Official Canvass and Statement of Votes Cast, published by the Nassau County Board of Elections (732 more votes than reported in the statewide certified results) and the City of New York Statement and Return of the Votes for the Office of President and Vice President of the United States (corrections in Kings and New York Counties), published by the New York City Board of Elections on February 21, 2001 (7,778 more votes than reported in the statewide certified results). Given that this update is from heavily democratic counties, the net result of these corrections is an increase in the vote margin for Al Gore over George W. Bush of 3,582 votes (bringing the total popular vote margin to 547,398 votes).
A Vote for President Uncounted in Aurora, Illinois
The Illinois State Board of Elections did not count one 2012 General Election Presidential Ballot vote for Barack Obama in the City of Aurora. In the state of Illinois, the administration of elections is performed by a combination of county governments and a number of city election commissions. The final set of results, however, published by the Illinois State Board of Elections, is summarized only by County. An oversight within this process is evident in the 2012 General Election Results for the City of Aurora. Aurora is split between four counties – Kane, Kendall, Will, and DuPage. The Aurora Election Commission administers the precincts residing in three of these counties (the DuPage County Election Commission administers those precincts entirely within its boundaries because a county commission supersedes a city commission, whereas a city commission supersedes a county clerk). The precinct-level results from Aurora City are tallied by county and the totals are included with the results of Kane, Kendall, and Will, as appropriate. However, the 2012 Statement of Votes Cast from the Aurora Election Commission, includes an entry labeled “Presidential Ballot”, with one vote cast for Barack Obama. This ballot was not allocated to its home precinct. When the tallies of the votes for President were made, the data suggest that only the physical precinct votes were tallied by county and included in the Official Vote. This “Presidential Ballot” appears not to have a defined county, leaving it left uncounted. The table below shows a detailed breakdown of the official results for Barack Obama for the counties of Kane, Kendall, and Will, showing the one vote discrepancy:
| Aurora | County Clerk | Total | IL SBoE | √ | |||
| County | # Prc | Votes | # Prc | Votes | |||
| Kane | 63 | 20,304 | 228 | 70,028 | 90,332 | 90,332 | √ |
| Kendall | 3 | 1,157 | 83 | 21,314 | 22,471 | 22,471 | √ |
| Will | 7 | 2,493 | 304 | 141,736 | 144,229 | 144,229 | √ |
| Total | 73 | 23,954 | 615 | 233,078 | 257,032 | 257,032 | √ |
| Aurora City | 74 | 23,955 | ∆ of 1 | ||||
West Virginia 2012 Write-in Votes
The 2012 General Election results for President officially reported in the West Virginia Certificate of Ascertainment include a total of 229 votes cast for 26 declared write-in candidates. The vote data for the write-in candidates are not included by the West Virginia Secretary of State in their online election results database. To date, the Election Atlas database only had the statewide totals available, including 119 votes for Virgil Goode, 31 votes for Roseanne Barr, 12 votes for Rocky Anderson, etc. Recently, I received the full county-level data for these candidates from the West Virginia Secretary of State’s office and incorporated them into the atlas.
1,053 Vote Error in MA Official 2010 Gubernatorial Results
Middlesex County, MA
The official general election results for Governor as published in the 2010 Public Document #43 Massachusetts Election Statistics (a book printed by the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, with an online edition located here) contains an error in the City of Cambridge, Middlesex County. With 1,076 votes for “All Others” as a red flag, an investigation reveals that the PD#43 tabulation scrambled the results in Ward 5 Precinct 1 – where the published table has Democrat Deval Patrick with 1 vote, Republican Charlie Baker with 23, Independent Tim Cahill with 31, Green-Rainbow Jill Stein with 10, “All Others” with 1,054 and 108 blanks. The official result as published by the City of Cambridge has Deval Patrick with 1,054 votes, Charlie Baker with 108, Tim Cahill with 23, Jill Stein with 31, 10 Blank votes, and 1 write-in vote. The corrected totals as published from the City of Cambridge has been incorporated in the Election Atlas database, resulting in an increase in total vote for Deval Patrick of 1,053 votes, an increase of 85 votes for Charlie Baker, a decrease of 8 votes for Tim Cahill, an increase of 21 votes for Jill Stein, and a decrease of 1,053 votes for “All Others”.
Updates to 2010 Governor and Senate Results
The Atlas 2010 General Election results for U.S. Senate and Governor have been updated to reflect several official changes in certified data. In Colorado, the official publication of the “Abstract of Votes Cast” (a printed book, but also available in a pdf version) includes higher figures relative to the Official Results report published on the Colorado Secretary of State’s web site on November 24, 2010 (over five thousand more votes are included in the published Abstract). In New York, the State Board of Elections published an Amended set of certified results on September 13, 2012. This report actually reduces the number of votes recorded in Westchester County. In Ohio, a slight increase in the vote count in Cuyahoga County is reflected by the most recent report on the Ohio Secretary of State 2010 General Election Official Results page. Lastly, 35 declared write-in votes are included for U.S. Senate in Delaware.
Virginia County Map Changes in 2013
Bedford County and City, VA
The 2013 general election map of Virginia includes the first county-equivalent boundary change since the independent city of Clifton Forge, VA reverted to a town in 2001. On July, 1, 2013, the independent city of Bedford, VA transitioned to town status, removing the boundary separating Bedford City from Bedford County. The number of independent cities in Virginia is now 38, with 95 counties, for a total of 133 county equivalents.
Preliminary 2013 Gubernatorial Results
The preliminary unofficial 2013 General Election results for Governor in New Jersey and Virginia have been posted. In New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie was re-elected by a margin of 60% to 38% with 1.6% voting for other candidates. This matched the New Jersey polls quite closely – with the appearance that the small undecided votes broke for Buono.
In Virginia, the results as reported by the Virginia State Board of Elections had Republican candidate Ken Cuccinelli ahead of Democrat Terry McAuliffe for much of the evening – only when 88% of the precincts had been counted did McAuliffe take the lead. This was due to the slower reporting of a number of urban precincts. In the end, the result was a closer-than-expected 2.5% margin for McAuliffe at 47.8% to Cuccinelli’s 45.3%. Libertarian Robert Sarvis received 6.5% (slightly below his polling average). The Virginia pre-election polls averaged a 6% margin for McAuliffe.
Election Day 2013
Election Day 2013 – a relatively quiet one on the state-wide level. The Atlas will be posting preliminary results of the Gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia.