Shelly Simonds is backing out of the Virginia election drawing and asking a court to dismiss the tied race with Republican David Yancey for a Virginia House seat and to declare her the winner, CBS News said.
The Democrat and her lawyers said on Tuesday that the court did not follow state election law when it allowed for a ballot to be counted the day after last week's recount.
While the motion could not be field on Tuesday due to the court's being closed, Simonds and her legal team announced their plans to submit on Wednesday.
Meanwhile the Virginia State Board of Elections has postponed its plans to break the tie in a name-drawing scheduled to take place on Wednesday, The Washington Post noted.
The rare spectacle would have seen the seat filled by the drawing of a name out of a bowl, something which has drawn widespread attention. The final decision could shift power in the House, where Republicans previously held a 16-seat majority before the Nov. 7 elections, which would see a 50-50 split.
"Drawing names is an action of last resort," the board said in written statement, according to the Post. "Any substantive concerns regarding the election or recount should be resolved before a random drawing is conducted."
The filing said that, by "allowing a party to a recount to wait until after the recount has concluded to challenge a ballot, as the Court has done in the instant case, is inequitable and not in line with applicable policy," the Daily Press reported.
Simonds' lawyer intends to request that the court suspend its decision and reconsider the ballot that resulted in the tie, USA Today noted.
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