"Fifth District Congressman Virgil Goode doesn’t appear close to conceding. He issued a statement a few minutes ago that suggests he will request a recount if the lead holds for his Democratic challenger, Tom Perriello.

“With the vote counting process almost complete, it has become clear that there have been a number of reporting irregularities—including the misplacement of paper ballots and tape records from electronic machines and miscalculations in vote tallies,” said Goode in the release. “In fact, almost 20 percent of all the voting precincts in the district had reporting errors.”

“While current unofficial tallies have me trailing my opponent, these irregularities have cast doubt on the reported totals. It is essential that we get to the bottom of these problems and insist on a thorough and proper vote counting process. We will continue to fight to make sure that every single legitimate vote in the Fifth District is accurately counted and reported.”

Meanwhile, Albemarle County numbers were reported a few minutes ago, boosting Perriello’s lead by another 100 votes to 747. He is now winning by a margin of 0.24 percent of the vote." (Will Goldsmith, C-Ville Weekly online, November 7, 2008)