November 16, 2023.
In an email dated 11/13/23, I claimed that “Susan Cunningham, the top Democrat vote getter, reported a lopsided 69 percent of the vote” when according to the Virginia State Board of Elections, Cunningham got just 38.5 percent of the vote.
Cunningham did not claim 69 percent of the vote, but rather that 69 percent of the voters supported her on their ballot.
This is a distinction without a difference in an ordinary 1 seat election. But this year 2 seats were up. Thus the number of votes cast was approximately double the number of those who voted, and each County Board candidate’s proportion of the vote was reduced by half.
Using the same estimate as Cunningham–which divides candidate vote totals by voters in the election–Clement and Fierro together registered 43.5% voter support.
All candidates’ level of support was undoubtedly higher than the estimated percentages, since not everyone who voted in the election voted in the County Board race.
In light of these facts, my claim that Cunningham misreported her percent of the vote is false, and I retract it.
Nevertheless I think Cunningham owes it to her supporters to show how she arrived at the statistic she did report, if only to explain the disparity between her percent of the vote as reported by the State Board of Elections and her estimate of her level of support.