cross-posted at   dailykos

In the closest statewide election in Virginia's modern history, a state Court has supervised, and certified, a so-called "recount" of the race for Attorney General.

Did the voting machine in your county tally your ballot
 — or did it count you out?

         Recount Starts, but Without Va. Ballots
         Wednesday December 21, 2005; Page B01    Wash. Post

The recount in the race for Virginia attorney general began yesterday ... but because of rules set earlier by a three-judge panel overseeing the process, very few votes were actually recounted.

          It is "only a reverification and a checking of the paperwork," said Robert Moses of the Loudon county Democratic Committee.

Two rulings by the court kept 25% of Virginia's ballots, almost all of the optical-scan ones, from being looked at or refed through the tallying machines.

The candidates for Attorney General were separated by less than two-hundredths of a percent, a mere 323 votes out of nearly 2 million cast.

Many of the votes were tallied on a scanner model named the Optech III-PE. The III-P Eagle machine recently lost its certification in North Carolina and created unexpected counting problems in races in Colorado — where a  review of the ballots flipped two races after it found bunches of marked ballots were skipped over by the machines.