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Appeals court won’t block Virginia Republican from taking seat in House of Delegates: report

by Rebecca Savransky - 01/10/18 10:52 AM ET

A federal appeals court said it would not prevent Republican Robert Thomas from taking his seat in the Virginia House of Delegates, The Washington Post reported.

The decision from the appeals court came down shortly before the Virginia legislature was scheduled to convene Wednesday.

Thomas beat Democrat Joshua Cole by 73 votes. But due to mistakes with voting data, 147 voters were given ballots for the wrong district. {mosads}

Four Democratic voters sued in an effort to prevent Thomas from taking the seat.

A federal judge last week declined to block the Republican from being sworn into the House of Delegates.

The Democratic voters then appealed the decision to the Fourth Circuit, where a three-judge panel ruled in the same way.

The Virginia NAACP said Tuesday that allowing for the results of the elections to stand “will deny African American voters an opportunity to elect their candidate of choice.”