A One-Vote Victory in Virginia Lasts One Day as Judges Declare a Tie

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A day after a dramatic recount handed Democrats a single-vote victory in a Virginia House of Delegates race, the outcome abruptly shifted on Wednesday as a three-judge panel declared the race now tied.

The judges meeting in Newport News, Va., agreed to a Republican request to count a problematic ballot discarded the day before, said Philip L. Hatchett, a lawyer for David Yancey, the Republican incumbent who seemed to have lost his seat to Shelly Simonds, a Democrat. A victory by Ms. Simonds, a school board member in Newport News, would evenly split the Virginia House 50-50 and end 17 years of Republican majorities.

Mr. Hatchett told reporters that the ballot in question showed two bubbles filled in, one for Ms. Simonds and one for Mr. Yancey, but there was a line “struck through” the Simonds vote. The voter chose Republicans in every other race on the Nov. 7 ballot, according to The Associated Press. The electoral board ruled the voter’s intent was to choose Mr. Yancey, Mr. Hatchett said. That gave each candidate 11,608 votes.

Under Virginia law, the State Board of Elections chooses the winner of a tied election “by lot,” which experts said effectively means a coin flip, drawing of straws, or pulling names out of a hat. The loser of a drawing may petition for a recount, the law states.

Mr. Yancey’s extraordinary reversal of fortune on Wednesday came a day after a recount that erased a 10-vote lead he held on Election Day. His lawyer said that Tuesday marked “the first time in the history of Virginia that an election result was changed in a recount.” Republicans had even congratulated Ms. Simonds and pledged to share power in bipartisan fashion.

Now that dramatic history is moving into even more remarkable territory, with an apparent drawing of lots.

A representative for Ms. Simonds argued before the judges that the disputed ballot should not be counted because the voter had filled in bubbles for both candidates. However, the State Board of Elections, in a guide to hand-counting ballots, appears to address this question, showing an example in which a voter marks two candidates but clarifies the intention using “an additional mark or marks that appear to indicate support.” In that case, the guide says, “the ballot shall be counted.”