THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, May 12, 1996                   TAG: 9605110129
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON    PAGE: 22   EDITION: FINAL 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   63 lines

ELECTION RESULTS: IT'S A BIG JOB TO GET THE VOTES IN AND THE NUMBERS OUT

The chart above contains the official results of Tuesday's general election, as certified by the Virginia Beach Electoral Board. Certification followed the vote canvass conducted on Wednesday.

Unless a candidate seeks a recount, the vote canvass is the only official count of the ballots; the traditional election night counts are preliminary, unofficial and subject to revision.

For this month's 58-choice election, the electoral board and general registrar Marlene J. Claya Hager lined up more than 400 Beach residents to staff the 65 polling places. Backing them up were the staffs of the registrar's office and the circuit court clerk.

When the polls closed, officials at each precinct opened the voting machines and printed out the tabulations of the cards that had been fed into them during the day.

The results were read aloud to precinct observers and then phoned to the circuit court clerk's office for the unofficial tabulation. The results of that count were issued periodically to the media, candidates and interested citizens.

This year, The Virginian-Pilot formed a partnership with city Boy Scouts to obtain results and distribute them to staff members and the public quickly. More than 40 Scouts, Scout leaders and parents participated in Operation Ballot Box.

Each participant was assigned to a polling place as an official observer. When the results were read aloud, the observer recorded them and phoned the newspaper.

The results were entered into a computer system that produced continuous running totals that were distributed to newspaper reporters, WTAR Radio and Infoline. Throughout the night, the totals were used in updating pages and graphics. As final totals became available, they were fed into the Pilot Online electronic edition available on Infinet.

The Scouts who participated in the project received a certificate recognizing the community service aspects of going behind the scenes in a major city election and helping to get results to the public quickly.

The names of the participants and others who played a major role in Operation Ballot Box appear in an advertisement on Page 38 in today's Beacon. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

[Chart]

Official Election results

For the following races:

Mayor City Council

School Board

Referendum

For copy of chart, see microfilm and Clip files: Virginia Beach City

Councilmanic Race, Virginia Beach Mayoral Races and Virginia Beach

School Board Race.

KEYWORDS: OFFICIAL ELECTION RESULTS VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOL BOARD ELECTION

VIRGINIA BEACH CITY COUNCIL RACE VIRGINIA BEACH MAYOR'S RACE

by CNB