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By LOU HATTER
and MARY K. BLEWITT
Arundel Newspapers Staff Writers
L. Douglas Wilder holds a sliver-thin lead over J. Marshall Coleman in the closest statewide race in Virginia history, but history remains on hold as a vote recount appears inevitable.
Refuting post-election and exit polls which showed Wilder maintaining a sure lead over Coleman, the election transformed into a nail-biting cliff-hanger late Tuesday night. Wilder maintained a loose grasp on history, leading Coleman by three-tenths of a percentage point with 99 percent of the votes reported. If elected, Wilder would stands to become the first elected black governor in the nation.
Rappahannock County, however, went for Coleman by a 10 point margin, 55 percent to 45 percent. Twothirds of the county’s 3,211 registered voters went to the polls, a significant increase over the 50 percent total who voted in the 1985 gubernatorial election.
The county continued its Republican tilt in the lieutenant governor’s race, with state Sen. Edwina “Eddy” Dalton beating Donald S. Beyer by a four point margin, 52 percent to 48 percent.
Only Attorney General Mary Sue Terry saved the county from a Republican sweep, handily defeating GOP challenger state Sen. Joseph Benedetti by a 57 percent to 43 percent margin.
Republican delegate Raymond R. “Andy” Guest Jr. also won election to his 31st District seat, defeating political newcomer David N. Crump Jr. by a 66 percent to 34 percent count.
In the only other local race on the ballot, StonewallHawthom Supervisor Robert P. Anderson, who ran unopposed in a special election to the seat he was appointed to fill after the resignation of Nelson Lane, received 397 votes in that district out of 407 cast. A total of 441 ballots were cast at Scrabble.
Across the county, Wilder captured the precints of Washington (Hampton District) and Flint Hill (Wakefield District), but Coleman swept the county’s other four precincts: Amissville (Jackson District), Sperryville (Piedmont District), Chester Gap (Wakefield District) and Scrabble (Stonewall-Hawthom District).
The lieutenant governor’s race followed the gubernatorial results across the county, but Ms. Terry and Del. Guest swept all six of the county’s precincts.
Although Wilder claimed victory at 11:28 p.m. election night, state Republican Chairman Donald W. Huffman had already made motions for a recount at 11 p.m., according to the Richmond Times Dispatch.
The final word on the gubernatorial election may not come for weeks and could be spoken by absentee voters. According to state law, if the victor leads by less than one half of a percentage point, the state will pay for a recount. If the difference is more than one half of a percentage point the challenger pays.
Nevertheless, a recount can not be called until after the state Board of Elections certifies the unofficial results. Certified results generally take a month to receive.
Republicans are already claiming irregularities in Portsmouth, where a precinct allegedly remained opened two hours past the official closing time of 7 p.m., according to a Wednesday morning news report on WTVR-TV, Channel 6 in Richmond.
Republicans were scheduled to meet with their attorneys at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday to discuss their plans.
See ELECTION, p. 16
96.2%