Manassas City School Board candidate Sara J. Brescia said Wednesday that unofficial results showing her 13 votes behind Murina V. Dove for the third open seat do not end the race, and that late mail and provisional ballots could still change the outcome.
Unofficial results from the Virginia Department of Elections show Lisa Anne Stevens with 6,216 votes (19.70%), Marcus S. Still with 6,102 (19.34%), and Dove with 5,941 (18.83%). Brescia finished fourth with 5,928 votes (18.79%). Raul O. Campoverde Lindao and Javanese M. Hailey each received 3,626 votes (11.49%). Write-ins totaled 110.
Voters chose three members. The race is nonpartisan. Stevens is the only one of the three leading candidates who currently serves on the board. Still and Dove are new. Brescia, first elected in 2022, sought a second term.
In a Facebook post Wednesday, Brescia said the Virginia Public Access Project has called the race for Dove under its own criteria, but “the race, however, has not been conceded.” She said nearly 200 late-arriving mail votes and provisional votes are still being processed and are not included in current totals. All votes will be counted and certified by Tuesday, Nov. 10.
Under Virginia law, a defeated candidate may request a recount if the margin is not more than 1% of the total votes cast for the two candidates. The state pays for the recount if the margin is 0.5% or less. For multi-winner races, the comparison is to the lowest-finishing apparent winner. Brescia said the current 13-vote gap is about 0.04%, and that the fourth-place candidate would have up to 10 days after certification to request a recount. She said she was told a recount would not take long, and that there has never been a recount in any past Manassas City local election.
Brescia wrote that traditional patterns show Democratic candidates often perform better in provisional and mail-in votes, and that close gaps tend to widen rather than shrink during post-election processing. She said there are still reasons for optimism based on the precinct distribution of provisional votes and support from younger voters. She emphasized that the final outcome, whatever it is, is legitimate and that proper procedures are being followed.
“Any candidate with this thin of a margin would allow these processes to move forward,” Brescia wrote. “Voters have gone through the trouble of casting their votes, and each of them deserves to be counted.”
Still and Dove were endorsed by the Manassas & Manassas Park Cities Democratic Committee alongside Stevens. Brescia was endorsed by local Republicans.
Results remain unofficial until certification. Provisional ballots and remaining absentee ballots have not been fully counted. The city’s electoral board will certify the results later.
