Election results: one down, one to go.

Alabama:  State election officials met on Thursday afternoon and promptly certified the election of Democrat Doug Jones as United States Senator to replace the acting senator Luther Strange, who was appointed to temporarily fill the seat left vacant when Jeff Sessions became Attorney General in the Trump Administration.   Jones will be sworn in Jan. 3rd, narrowing the Republican majority to 51-49.

The official count gave Jones a 21,924 vote advantage over Roy Moore, who had refused to concede defeat and even filed a last-ditch, legal challenge, claiming a variety of accusations of "widespread voter fraud" that he said should be investigated before the certification.

According to a CNN report by Chris Cillizza, "Moore's primary complaint seemed to revolve around increased black turnout in the election. Why that would be somehow fraudulent wasn't detailed in the complaint. And John Merrill, Alabama's secretary of state, dismissed a number of the specific issues raised by Moore as either misleading or simply false.  A judge denied Moore's delay request Thursday morning. And then came the official certification," signed by the governor, the attorney general, and the secretary of state.

But it was not for lack of Moore's trying a Hail Mary pass. Besides the "too many blacks voting" charge,  the complaint wanted an investigation of the cars with out of state licence plates at polling places.  And a vague statement that "voter fraud experts" from across the country say this was a fraudulent election.

No one denies -- nor is it illegal -- that the Democratic National Party helped the Jones campaign in its ground game of getting out the vote.   Hence the increased black voting and the out of state car licenses.   Other charges seems to stem from nothing more than unsubstantiated rumors and articles in Breitbart News.

It's over now -- although Moore may not think so.   To him, this was a crusade in which he "stood up for God and the Constitution."   How can you lose?   Even if you once molested some teen age girls?    Moore seems to think that he had a divine right to win this election.

But he did lose, fair and square.  It is now official.   Alabama has a Democratic senator, at least for the four years remaining in the Sessions term,

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Virginia:   The election in Virginia for governor and members of their legislative bodies has been over for almost eight weeks, but the control of the House of Delegates is still undecided.

Republicans had had an easy majority that gave them long-standing control of the House, but they also came under the Democratic wave that elected a Democratic governor, despite Trump's having campaigned for the Republican candidate, the popular Ed Gillespie.   And a whole slew of Democrats flipped seats to blue in the House of Delegates.

Why the long delay?  First, a number of the races were so close that recounts were required.  When they were finally completed -- except for two -- that majority had dwindled down -- not just to one seat -- but to a single contested vote in one district that will decide which party controls the House.

If that single vote is read one way, Democrat's gain control.   If it is read the other way, the 94th district vote will be tied at 11,608 to 11,608 -- because the ballot would be discarded, not counted for the other side.   If that is the result, the law specifies a method of resolution:  the name of each candidate will be placed in a film canister (remember those from 35 mm film?) and one canister will be drawn blindly from a container.   Note that this is the way of deciding a tie in a district vote -- not in an overall tie to see who controls the House.  If the House has an equal number of delegates, they have to share power and administration.

Here's how it came to this.  The voting method is by paper ballot.  Voters use a pencil to fill in a circle next to the candidate's name.  On the ballot in question, the voter had filled in the circle by both names -- a Republican and a Democrat -- and then had drawn a single line through the filled-in circle next to the Democrat's name.

In the initial count, the Democrat lost in this district by 10 votes.    A routine recount then declared the Democrat won by one vote -- with that contested vote being the crucial deciding vote.  If the vote was invalid and not counted, the Democrat wins by one vote.   If it is counted, the vote is tied and will be decided by a drawing, as described above. 

A three judge panel was asked to rule on the contested vote.   They deliberated for two hours and finally ruled that it should be counted for the Republican -- the one without the line drawn through.   They were also influenced by the fact that this voter chose Republican candidates in other statewide races.   Democrats say this is wrong, because it is an improperly marked ballot and should be discarded.   They are considering further legal options for appeal.

I agree that the judges made a wrong decision.  A ballot marked like this, by most voting regulations, would be considered invalid.   And the argument about the voter choosing Republicans in other races ignores that Roy Moore is not just another Republican.    There was widespread split -- just look at the fact that he lost in a deeply Republican state.   That indicates that many people split their vote -- for other Republicans but against Moore.

That's where it stands.    If this doesn't make Virginia complicated enough, there's another district with a problem.   In the 28th district, where the Republican leads by 82 votes, Democrats are calling for a new election because at least 147 ballots were given out to the wrong districts.

So, Virginia, stay tuned.   With an 82 vote lead, this other district is unlikely to flip, even if they do vote again.   But in the 94th, if the Democrat wins, it means the House of Delegates will have an equal number of Republicans and Democrats and will have to work out some power-sharing arrangement.

Someone said -- and it's true -- democracy is messy.

Ralph