Republican David Bowers is claiming to be the next mayor of Roanoke with a lead of 11 votes over Democratic candidate Joe Cobb, while 1,200 provisional ballots are yet to be counted.
The vote has yet to be certified, and the registrar’s office said it will be a week until we know who the winner is. Independent candidate Stephanie Moon Reynolds, who currently sits on council, won 25% of the vote thus far, whereas Bowers and Cobb both sit at about 37% of the vote.
“The election is over, it’s time to govern,” Bowers said Wednesday morning at a press conference he held outside the municipal building. At the time, he held a lead of 19 votes. “Nineteen angels carried me across last night,” he said. By day’s end, the State Board of Elections website said his lead had shrunk to 11 votes — 14,821 to 14,810 for Cobb, a difference of 37.25% to 37.22%. Independent Stephanie Moon had 9,966 or 25.05%.
As of Wednesday morning, Nicholas Ocampo, director of elections and general registrar, said there were 1,223 ballots that were cast during early voting or on Tuesday that had not yet been counted.
He said every precinct within Roanoke City has ballots that had not been counted yet.
The precincts with some of the most ballots yet to be counted, Ocampo said, are Highland, Lehigh and Preston Park. The registrar’s office won’t have a more detailed breakdown of these provisional ballots and which precincts they’re coming from until early next week.
How the provisional ballots will be counted
Virginia has stated a deadline, he said, for all localities to have all provisional ballots accounted for by Monday at 5 p.m., and the next day, the commonwealth goes through a process to make sure there are no duplicate voters across localities.
“We are far from a conclusion,” said Ocampo on Wednesday morning. He said Roanoke won’t have a “full picture” of the entire results until early next week.
Bowers, the Republican candidate, is referring to himself as the “mayor-elect” and said he is “consulting legal counsel” regarding the provisional votes. He said he was advised to not comment on the votes that have yet to be counted.
When asked if he will accept the results, if they are to show that Cobb is the winner next week, Bowers said, “I’m accepting the results right now.”
Cobb underscores significance of ‘every vote being counted accurately’
Joe Cobb, the Democratic candidate for mayor and current vice mayor of Roanoke, was outside the municipal building before Bowers’ press conference.
“He’s not the mayor-elect,” Cobb said. “He’s making that up.”
Cobb said if after all the provisional votes are counted, if there are still such slim margins, he will call for a recount.
In a statement he released Wednesday afternoon, Cobb congratulated Terry McGuire, Phazhon Nash and Nick Hagen for winning the three council seats, and stated he wants to “underscore the significance of every vote being counted accurately.”
“Our election system has safeguards in place to ensure fairness, integrity and transparency, and this requires attention to detail to verify each vote cast. I want to encourage patience and trust in the process as election officials work diligently to follow secure procedures for verifying and counting ballots. Regardless of the outcome, I will respect the decision of the voters and continue working hard for the citizens of Roanoke.”
