By Bridget Manley, publisher
The 2025 election isn’t quite over yet, as one Rockingham County school board candidate seeks a recount in a close race while another moves closer to settling some campaign-related fines.
School board candidate Earnest Calhoun, who was running in the county’s first district, has petitioned the Rockingham County Circuit Court for a recount of the November 2025 election results.
Jackie Lohr, the incumbent, beat Calhoun in a squeaker of a race with an 18-vote lead. The Rockingham County Electoral Board certified those results on Nov. 12 in Rockingham County Circuit Court.
Calhoun requested the recount on Nov. 17, according to documents obtained at the Rockingham County Circuit Court.
The recount will start at 9 a.m. on Dec. 18 at the Rockingham County Administration Building on East Gay Street, said Circuit Court Clerk Chas Haywood. The recount is open to the public.
Under Virginia law, a candidate can request a recount when the margin of victory is 1% or less of the total votes cast in that race. The margin of votes in Lohr’s favor stands at .28%.
According to the certified election results, there were 50 write-in votes in that race, including both valid write-ins and invalid write-ins.
Calhoun has requested a recount by hand of all early voting ballots, stating in his petition that he “personally witnessed printing errors at early voting with my ballot and was told that a lot of printer errors were reported by elections staff.”
He has requested a hand-count recount of all mail-in absentee ballots, citing a “large voting variance compared to election day voting numbers.”
He has requested a standard recount of all Election Day precinct ballots, a review of any rejected mail-in or early ballots, as well as permission for a designated qualified observer to be present during all recount procedures.
Chief Judge Kevin C. Black has been designated as the coordinating judge for the recount.
The costs of the recount are charged to the county if the candidate requesting the recount wins or if there is a margin of no more than .5% between the two candidates before the recount, according to the Virginia Department of Elections.
Neither Calhoun nor Lohr immediately responded to requests for comment.
Cross gets his fines lowered to $1,000
As first reported by WHSV-TV, Rockingham County School Board member Matt Cross won an appeal to reduce fines levied against him for failing to file campaign finance reports. His fines were reduced to $1,000 after the appeal, which was held Nov. 17.
Cross lost his bid for re-election to the school board from the 3rd District. He came in third in the 2025 election behind challengers Hilary Irons and Lauren Mullen. Earlier this year, the Rockingham County Electoral Board fined Cross for failing to file campaign finance reports dating back to 2021.
Those fines totaled $9,200. During the Nov. 17 hearing, Cross’s attorney, Tolley Guinn, argued that many of the fines were outside the statute of limitations.
Guinn also argued that Cross was not informed about the missing reports due to “technical and communication issues.” Cross has long maintained that his email address changed shortly after the 2021 election, and the state was “sending notifications to an email that no longer exists.”
Cross did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
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