However, the Virginia Department of Elections, in a guide to hand-counting ballots, appears to address the issue, showing an example in which a voter marks two candidates but clarifies the intention using “an additional mark or marks that appear to indicate support.” In that case, the guide says, “the ballot shall be counted.” 
 
 Tied votes, which are extremely rare, have occasionally been broken around the country by coin tosses or the like. Yancey had emerged from Election Day with a 10-vote lead in the 94th District, but the recount uncovered enough additional ballots for Simonds to give her a one-vote victory. A City Council race in Idaho was decided by a coin toss in November, only to have the results reversed after a recount. The closeness of the Virginia House race was part of a Democratic surge that flipped 15 other Republican-held House seats to Democrats, who also held onto the governor’s office. Ms. Simonds took a victory lap early Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” 
 
 A lawyer for the Virginia House Democratic caucus, Marc Elias, said that the local court’s decision about the ballot was wrong and that he was assessing legal options. “The Republicans themselves had affirmed that this result was accurate yesterday before changing their minds today,” Mr. Elias said in a statement. “After conceding this seat and their majority, they are now desperately trying to claw both back.” 
 
 Ms. Simonds’s representative argued before the judges that the disputed ballot should not be counted because it was an example of an “overvote,” when multiple candidates for the same race are chosen. GOP leaders in the House of Delegates, who on Tuesday had conceded the recount and pledged to share power with Democrats in what they believed would be a chamber split 50 to 50, issued a new statement after Wednesday's turn of events.
– Well, that didn't last long. Three judges and a sloppily filled-in ballot have erased Shelly Simonds' dramatic one-vote Virginia House win that made headlines Tuesday, the New York Times reports. Republican incumbent David Yancey held a 10-vote lead after Election Day for Virginia's 94th House District. But a recount Tuesday gave challenger Simonds a one-vote win and Democrats a 50-50 tie in the Virginia House. The recount ended 17 years of Republican control in the Virginia House, the Washington Post notes. But on Wednesday, Republicans took the recount result to court over a ballot that had been discarded by election officials during the recount, the Virginian-Pilot reports. The problem: Bubbles for both Yancey and Simonds had been filled in. Judges on Wednesday ruled the ballot should be counted as a vote for Yancey. Simonds' bubble had a strike through it, and all other votes on the ballot were for Republicans. Yancey and Simonds are now tied at 11,608 votes each, and Republicans hold a 50-49 majority in the Virginia House. The next representative of the 94th House District will now be chosen "by lot," as per state law. The chairman of Virginia's board of elections says this will most likely involve picking a name out of a bowl. Whoever loses the drawing can still petition for a second recount. "I'm really grateful that every vote has been counted," Yancey says. But Democrats are upset the ballot wasn't challenged until after Republicans had approved the recount results and congratulated Simonds on her victory.