By Heather Michon
Correspondent
Election officials, observers, and candidates assembled at the Fluvanna County Circuit Court on Tuesday (Dec. 2) for a rare event: a full recount of the Cunningham School Board race.
With only 20 votes separating incumbent Charles Rittenhouse and challenger Sarah Johnson, Johnson petitioned the court for a recount shortly after the Nov. 5 election.
While over 9,000 ballots were cast in the Cunningham District on Election Day, only about a third of those voters marked a choice in the School Board race.
This meant that three teams of two poll workers were assigned to feed all 9,000 ballots back through the scanners to ensure no votes had been missed during the initial count. The recount began at about 9:30 a.m. and lasted more than eight hours.
Both candidates had the right to appoint official observers to monitor the teams during the count. Johnson appointed several observers, including a team of trained “voter protection” officials from Albemarle County. Rittenhouse chose not to appoint observers and spent much of the day walking from machine to machine.
Also in the courtroom were two voting officials from Rockingham County. One of their School Board races had come down to a 16-vote difference, and this was an opportunity to see a recount in action.
None of the election officials could recall the last time Fluvanna County had conducted a recount in a local race.
Recounts rarely change the outcome of an election, even where the vote is close. According to the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP), in eight state legislative recounts since 2017, only one changed the Election Day results.
Johnson funded the recount at a cost of about $5,000. While she knew the odds were against her winning, she felt it was worth doing, both because of the closeness of the final vote and to show future candidates that the recount process was not as daunting as it might seem.
At the end of the day, only three votes shifted: Rittenhouse picked up two, and Johnson lost one.
Circuit Judge Claude Worrell read the results from the bench – Johnson, 1,227 votes; Rittenhouse, 1,250 votes.
“Mr. Rittenhouse wins this election,” he said.
Next steps
Rittenhouse will begin a new four-year term in January, but the story of the 2025 election may not be over.
Several irregularities were reported at the Antioch Baptist Church polling place on Election Day, including allegations that Rittenhouse and his wife, County Treasurer Debbie Rittenhouse, criticized Johnson for wearing a rainbow-striped hat while standing outside the church.
The incident has led several residents to call on the Electoral Board to relocate the Antioch and Beaver Dam precincts from their current church locations to more neutral sites.
