In the past, I've been dismissive of provisional ballots because of their vulnerability. But it's becoming very clear in Virginia's 5th congressional district, where Democrat Tom Perriello leads Rep. Virgil Goode by 31 votes, that provisional ballots in a tight race become as significant as regular ballots -- if considerably more vulnerable. During the primaries this year, 40 percent of provisional ballots were ultimately rejected.
Yesterday, Goode and his Republican allies attempted to prevent provisional ballots from Perriello's home region of Albemarle County from being counted.
Goode, if you'll remember, was warning of an Islamic takeover of the United States after Rep. Keith Ellison, a Muslim, was elected to Congress, and has attempted to introduce legislation to prevent citizenship for "anchor babies," the right's crude term for the children of undocumented immigrants born in the United States. It's unclear how such legislation would pass Constitutional muster without repealing the 14th Amendment, which isn't likely to happen.
Perriello is a former national security consultant and the founder of Catholics in Alliance For The Common Good, and he's spent time in a lot of international trouble spots like Afghanistan and Darfur.
Incidentally, one of my favorite moments from this race was during their third debate, when Goode basically claimed minorities were responsible for the credit crisis and Perriello responded that Goode's comment was "the scariest thing you'll hear tonight ... that's not just out of touch with the district, that's out of touch with reality."
--A. Serwer
