Canvassing Complete in 11th Congressional District

Canvassing in the Fairfax County portion of the  is now complete.

Incumbent Gerry Connolly lengthened his lead over challenger Keith Fimian by 116 votes, as he added 109 after canvassing and Fimian lost seven.

As of 12:15 a.m., the vote in the 11th District as a whole is:

Connolly: 111,695 (49.22%)

Fimian: 110, 727 (48.79%)

In Fairfax County the total is now:

Connolly: 76,086

Fimian: 71, 571

The overall margin is still within  between the candidates, meaning that should the Fimian campaign request it, an official recount could be administered. Only Fimian can request the recount, it is not automatic.

The election will not become official until November 22, when it is certified by the Virginia Board of Elections. At that point, the Fimian campaign could request the recount. With the margin being less than 0.5 percent, Virginia Election law mandates that the recount be funded by the state.

Tim Edson, manager for the Fimian campaign, said that once the Fairfax County votes are official, Fimian will make a decision whether or not to pursue a recount.

The campaign of Gerry Connolly released the following statement to the media at 4:54 p.m. yesterday:

"As of this moment, Connolly maintains a 935 vote margin over Fimian. Since the canvass began, Connolly's lead has grown from 480 on election night to 935 today.

All precincts in Fairfax and Fairfax City have been canvassed by their respective electoral boards. There are two outstanding precincts in PW County where canvassing is not complete due to a clerical matter.

Fairfax County and PW Counties are now reviewing provisional ballots (88 in PW and around 300 in all of Fairfax County).

We are confident of Connolly's win. We believe that mathematically, there is no chance that a recount (which is just a glorified canvass) can turn it around.

We will release statements from Connolly and our campaign manager when the local electoral boards certify the results of their canvasses.  We expect that the results will be certified on Friday, but that could change."