PARKERSBURG – The county’s primary election results have been finalized and a wait is underway to see if there will be a recount.

At around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, the hand count of three randomly picked voting precincts, 32, 82 and 56A, was completed and the results for the primary election were certified, Commission President Blair Couch said.

“We are completed and certified, opening a 48-hour window for (Bill) Anderson to request a recount,” he said.

The Wood County Commission gathered Monday to review 86 provisional ballots to determine which ones would be approved to be added to the official tally with 46 approved to be counted.

The provisional ballots had the potential to impact the race for the House of Delegates 10th District seat between incumbent Republican Bill Anderson and his Republican challenger Justin Beanard. Going into Monday, Anderson was originally down by five votes in the unofficial tally with 822 to Beanard’s 827. Both men, who were in attendance, gained votes during the canvass.

Following the canvass, Anderson was short three votes to Beanard with Beanard having 829 votes to Anderson’s 826.

County officials laid out what would have to happen if Anderson wanted to have a recount done and what both candidates would be required to do with posting a bond and what would happen during a recount.

Initially, Anderson said he was probably not going to ask for a recount after the vote total was announced, saying he believed the count was accurate.

County officials will allow the 48-hour period, in case he might change his mind, officials said.

Anderson has served in the West Virginia Legislature for 34 years and feels like a lot was accomplished during that time.

“When I was first elected and in my first term as I walked out of the Capitol I passed a statue of Abraham Lincoln and I asked myself this question, `Is West Virginia better off having me here today?’

“Early in my first (legislative) session in my first term, if you are completely honest with yourself I would say `I don’t know.'”

As he looks back now work they started back then has led to the state being in the good financial condition now with a good credit rating with work on a 40-year plan to rework the state’s pension plan to have it acquarily funded by 2034 and they have adhered to that schedule as a legislature and through various governors.

“We almost have this mortgage paid off,” Anderson said. “I think that is very important for the credit rating for the state.

“It benefits the citizens of the state when a county wants to run a bond issue to build schools or a city wants to bond itself for upgrades to a sewer system, it results in them paying a lower interest rate for the bonds.”

Because West Virginia has dealt with its pension system, the state’s bond rating is very good by national bond rating organizations, he said.

“The next big significant thing we did to change things in the state in the long term is we had a $4 billion workers compensation debt,” Anderson said. “We tried to reform it in 1996. Republicans wanted to privatize it then, but we were in the minority and it wasn’t privatized.”

When Democrat Joe Manchin became governor in 2004 he brought forth a proposal to privatize Workers Comp, Anderson said he was contacted by the media and asked if he would support that proposal.

“I shared with them that it was a Republican proposal in 1996 and that I supported it then and I supported it now,” he said. “We privatized it and we have 100 insurance companies offering workers comp to the state in a competitive market at premium rates for employers.

“I think that has set the ground work for some of the business investment we are seeing in the state today (including Nucor in Mason County, the Berkshire Hathaway Project in Jackson County, developments in the Eastern Panhandle and elsewhere as well as some gas powered power plants in other parts of the state).”

These things are happening because West Virginia is now being seen as a place where business can locate and develop, he said.

“I welcome that investment and I feel like I have been a part of setting that base and we are finally seeing that tree bearing fruit,” Anderson said.

As far as the election went, Anderson said there were a number of negative third-party mailers and television commercials regarding himself, Delegate Vernon Criss (R-12th), Delegate Scot Heckert (R-13th) and Del. Bob Fehrenbacher (R- 11th) who ran for the West Virginia Senate and who were all defeated in the primary.

“I thought those were some of the most vicious and misleading commercials I have seen on television,” Anderson said. “It has brought a whole new style of campaigning to West Virginia that is foreign and alien to the way campaigns have historically been conducted in the state.”

He points to a time in a past primary in 1992 when he had a victory over longtime state legislator Frank Deem.

“I received a gracious note from him and his wife that I would have their support in the election,” Anderson said. “That was the way politics was conducted back then.

“We didn’t have the type of campaigning that we have seen in this most recent election. It is a type of campaigning I don’t think most West Virginians are use to. It is a campaign of disinformation.”

He said a number of the mailers that were sent out against him were full of “complete distortions” where votes taken on procedural matters were presented as if they were for the actual bill.

“The average citizen doesn’t understand the difference, he said adding they saw similar results across the state for a variety of candidates. “I don’t think it is an appropriate way to conduct a campaign.”

The commission is scheduled to do the final certification of the election results on Thursday at 12:26 p.m., according to the commission agenda.

Contact Brett Dunlap at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com