The Republican primary in the 5th is heading to a recount. History suggests it won't change the outcome.
If you're looking for an example of a recount that changed the results of an election, you'll have to go all the way back to 1985. That's when a Republican challenger in Indiana's so-called Bloody Eighth Congressional District won against the Democratic incumbent. A recount confirmed that the Republican won, but then Democrats in Congress conducted their own recount and overturned that result.
J. Miles Coleman at the University of Virginia says that's not a great precedent.
"The Bloody Eighth was very controversial. The counting stretched into the next calendar year. That was 40 years ago, basically," says Coleman. "So, if Bob Good is hoping that something like that happens again, I don't know if I would get my hopes up if I were him."
Here in Virginia, recounts were conducted in three congressional elections since 1967, and none of them changed the outcome.
"People around them are telling them the voting systems are not always 100% perfect. It's worth your time and money to see if we can get a different result," says Mark Rozell, dean of the Schar School at George Mason University. "Inevitably what happens time and time again maybe a small marginal change but no change in the actual outcome."
The recount that's about to start is different from all the previous congressional recounts in one significant way: it's a recount of a Republican primary rather than a recount of a general election.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
