Amanda Winter has won the second open school board seat in Radford by just four votes.
Winter, who had been endorsed by the local Democratic Party, defeated Ben Buzzard, who was endorsed by the Republican Party.
The final tally was updated Thursday after elections officials completed counting more than 500 provisional ballots, the majority of which were generated by college students registering to vote and casting ballots on Election Day. Friday is the deadline for local boards of elections to certify all results.
Republican-endorsed Brian Dobbins received 2,500 votes to win the first of two open seats, a victory that was clear on election night. Fewer than 30 votes separated Winter and Buzzard that night.
Ultimately, Winter claimed the second seat with 2,163 votes. Buzzard was only four votes behind with 2,159.
Buzzard said Thursday evening he was surprised that he gained so many votes from the provisional ballots. He said he anticipated that most same-day registrations would be students from Radford voting for liberal candidates. “I didn’t have it on my bingo card that I would start catching up to Amanda because of college students,” he said.
Because the final gap between Winter and Buzzard is so small, he could request a recount and the local electoral board would bear the cost. But he’s unsure whether he’ll do so, and said, “I’m probably going to sleep on it first.”
“I’m not sure it’s worth putting Radford through that,” he said.
Buzzard said he’s spoken with Winter several times during the campaign season and “it seems she would do a good job.” But he also acknowledged that more than 2,000 people chose him for the board. “Do I let them down?”
