Anderson appears to prevail in commonwealth’s attorney race, Biberaj yet to concede | News
After all but a handful of provisional and late-arriving mail ballots were counted on Nov. 13, Republican Robert D. Anderson appears to have defeated the Democratic incumbent, Buta Biberaj, by a narrow margin in the race to serve as Loudoun County’s commonwealth’s attorney for the next four years.
With all but 342 ballots counted, Anderson had 67,937 votes to Biberaj’s 67,580, a 357-vote victory margin, according to the Loudoun County Office of Elections. Anderson led by 1,021 votes among the ballots counted on election night.
“Woo, hoo, we got rid of Buta!” Scott Pio, chair of the Loudoun County Republican Committee, said after the announcement at the elections office in Leesburg.
Anderson declined to comment when reached by phone after the announcement. He previously tweeted on Nov. 8 that there was “no current path to victory for Buta Biberaj.”
In a brief interview, Biberaj called the updated vote totals “disappointing” but said she wouldn’t decide for a day or two whether to concede or seek a recount. In Virginia, elections decided by a margin of 1% or less are eligible for recounts. In a written statement, Biberaj thanked election workers and voters and said the race remains “too-close-to-call.”
Loudoun Electoral Board Chair Kristen Manos Kalina, a Republican, said the said the office is delaying counting 132 of the 342 uncounted votes until at least noon on Nov. 14, citing the potential for a lawsuit challenging whether elections officials correctly filled out paperwork on those ballots. If no court order is issued, she said all the votes would be counted.
Election workers open envelops containing provisional ballots Nov. 13 at the Loudoun County Office of Elections in Leesburg.
Avram “Avi” Fechter, chair of the Loudoun County Democratic Committee, said its important for voters that all votes be counted even though they won’t change the results. He said not counting the 132 ballots because of “administrative errors” by clerks would be unfair to the voters who filled them out correctly.
“If the Republican Party tries to stop these votes, it sets the precedent that any election worker can invalidate same-day registration by simply not filling out their side of the form correctly,” Fechter said. “Given the history of Virginia and Loudoun County, that is a very, very dangerous precedent to set. It our lifetime we had segregated schools in our county. We should not allow clerical errors to deprive people’s right to the franchise.”
In her statement, Biberaj also called for all votes to be counted.
“Today, Loudoun Republicans attempted to toss out legal mail-in votes and had to be told by the attorney General to back off. And now, Loudoun County Republicans are trying to disenfranchise 132 voters who fully complied with the law,” Biberaj said. “It’s outrageous that Loudoun Republicans are attempting Trump-like tactics to subvert our democracy and undermine a unanimous bipartisan Election Board decision to count these 132 votes. I will stand up and fight to protect every Loudoun resident’s right to vote and to have their vote counted.”
On Nov. 11, Anderson tweeted he planned to keep his campaign promise of restoring transparency to the Commonwealth’s Attorneys Office. “I am looking forward to doing what is necessary to restore the community’s trust, as our next Commonwealth’s attorney in January!” said Anderson who was commonwealth’s attorney from 1996 to 2003.
During the campaign, Anderson, 75, of Purcellville, accused Biberaj of lacking leadership leading to high turnover and low morale in the office. He said inexperience prosecutors have botched cases and vowed to restore competency. He also promised to indict more people for non-violent crimes such as shoplifting to protect retailers and improve the quality of life in the community.
Since taking office in 2020, Biberaj said she’s focused on prosecuting violent criminals while expanding alternatives to incarceration. Biberaj, 59, of Aldie, has also expanded the special victims unit to prosecute domestic violence and sex crimes while increasing services to victims.
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