Style Weekly
Registrar Snafu Leaves Sheriff Off Candidate List
by Chris DoviSheriff C.T. Woody's victory in the June Democratic primary looked like a landslide, but it would appear that someone at the Richmond registrar's office nearly didn't notice the needle moving on the election Richter scale.
As of last Thursday, July 16, Woody remained an uncertified candidate with the Virginia State Board of Elections. That was corrected Friday.
“It seems like it was an error of omission,” says Matt Abell, assistant manager of election services with the state. Woody's primary victory “necessitated the City of Richmond to add [his] candidate record into the state's database.”
Abell says the error appears to have been noticed nearly simultaneously by his office and Woody's, which no doubt got something of a shock when the one-term sheriff's name didn't appear on a list distributed by a state law enforcement association. “According to what I was told … there was some document that was distributed,” Abell says, “and his name wasn't there.”
The error was caught in plenty of time and there's no concern that Woody's name will fail to appear in the November. Woody is unopposed as a certified candidate, which means his will be the only name on the ballot for sheriff.
Other Publications
