Nearly four weeks after the recount in the GOP primary in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District confirmed Sen. John McGuire, R-Goochland, as the winner, the court has called back election officials from five of the district’s 24 localities to another hearing in Goochland County Wednesday to resolve some minor discrepancies in their reporting of votes. 

The court will also review a petition filed by Brad Marss, an attorney representing U.S. Rep. Bob Good, R-Farmville, and the incumbent, objecting to some of the expenses billed to Good’s campaign for the recount. 

Goochland’s Chief Judge Claude Worrell, who heads the three-judge panel presiding over the recount, said at a hearing in July that the cost would amount to about $96,500. But Diana Shores, a spokeswoman for Good, said on Monday that the campaign had been billed $103,000 and was disputing some of the charges.

Election officials from Amherst, Cumberland, Halifax and Mecklenburg counties and the city of Danville were summoned to appear at Wednesday’s hearing, but the additional review of ballots is not expected to change the outcome of the election.

Jason Corwin, the general registrar in Mecklenburg County, said in a phone interview that after the recount, his office reached out to the court after his staff discovered several minor math errors made during the recount in two of the county’s 22 precincts. 

“When we took the original recount certification sheet, we put down a couple of wrong numbers. One was 36 and should have been 37, and one was for early voting where we put down 283 and 128, and they were both off by one vote,” Corwin said. 

But the total number of votes cast in his locality remains accurate and did not change after the recount, Corwin said.

“We saw that we had made a mistake on our end, which almost forced the judges to make one, but they were willing to have another look, because we wanted the order to accurately reflect what we had done.”

Corwin said that the court has since asked his office to bring all the hand counted ballots back to Goochland for the upcoming hearing. 

“We went over to the clerk’s office and packed everything up, and it’s been locked and secured there until I’ll leave on Wednesday.”

Danville’s General Registrar Peggy Petty said that she was summoned back to Goochland after her team found that a ballot initially counted as an undervote — which is a ballot not counted because of unclear marking by the voter — had been marked for Good. 

“This was reported on our original paperwork, but the court did not pick it up for whatever reason,” Petty said. “It was a very clear vote for Mr. Good, it was taken to the court and for whatever reason they did not account for it.”

Petty said that she wasn’t too happy about having to make the 130-mile road trip from Danville to Goochland Wednesday to deliver a single ballot. “It’s definitely an inconvenience,” she said. 

David Richards, a politics professor at the University of Lynchburg, said it was “very unusual” for the court to hold another hearing almost one month after the recount concluded. “I think it speaks to how careful the court and the registrars are being.”

But the new hearing is not indicative of any major discrepancies with the vote count itself, Richards said. 

“The count was done by scanning the votes, and from what I know, the scans have been tested and shown to be 100% correct. However, undervotes are examined by hand carefully. If there is a question about a singular ballot and how it was counted, it is probably because the recount court is making sure every vote is counted that can be legitimately counted.”

Virginia election officials are trained professionals who take their job very seriously, Richards said. “I feel certain that the court is making absolutely sure that if anyone comes behind them, that each vote is clearly counted in the proper manner.”

Good requested the recount in the June 18 primary election after losing to McGuire by a mere 374 votes out of 62,792 cast. Under Virginia law, the localities involved cover the cost of a recount when the margin of victory is 0.5% or less, or if the candidate who petitioned for the recount is declared the winner. But because McGuire led the incumbent by 0.6%, Good had to raise money to pay for the recount. 

When the recount wrapped up shortly before midnight on Aug. 1, Good had picked up just four more votes, reducing McGuire’s winning margin to 370.

Shores, Good’s spokeswoman, said that the campaign was “surprised to learn” that officials from five localities had been called back to Goochland for another hearing. 

“Never before had we heard of a case where counties or cities were recalled to the court after a recount was conducted,” she said. “We trust the three judge panel is doing its due diligence to ensure that every vote has been legally counted and we look forward to finalizing this process on behalf of the voters of the district.”

Shores added that the campaign has the funds to pay for the recount. “We had almost 600 people donate to the efforts. About $103,000 was billed, but depending on what the judge outlines as acceptable billing on Wednesday, that number could change.”

In his petition, Marss, Good’s attorney, objected to “mileage or other travel expenses beyond those contemplated” being assessed to the campaign. 

Virginia law only allows for payment of the sum of $10 and mileage “only to officers of election, and only for each time (an officer of election) delivers poll books and ballots to the polling place, and each time he delivers returns and ballots to the appropriate official after the polls close,” the petition said.

“Unfortunately, with only one exception (Campbell County), every other locality has sought to assess Good for the mileage expenses paid to officers of election for merely commuting to and from their place of work. Commuting expenses are not generally compensable in the law.”

Good also objected to any attempt to assess him for any allocated portions of salaries of sheriff’s deputies or other law enforcement officers who performed duties during the recount proceedings, such as escorting election officials carrying ballots to Goochland. 

“The expenses of such officers’ salaries did not increase due to their involvement in this particular judicial action, and such expenses are not assessable as costs, whether in this recount matter, or in any other civil action,” the petition said.

Other contested expenses include catered meals for election officials, technical support for voting machines, and portions of the salaries that some local officials had billed to the campaign. Good’s petition further argued that the five localities summoned back to Goochland for Wednesday’s hearing “should have to absorb all expenses their errors may generate.”

McGuire on Monday did not respond to calls and text messages seeking comment, but Sean Brown, a campaign spokesman, said that if Good’s campaign “has the money as they claim, they should pay what they owe to localities, instead of short changing registrars, law enforcement officers, and all those that facilitated Bob’s failed recount effort.”

Wednesday’s hearing has been set for 1 p.m. at the Goochland County Circuit Court.