When the Fifth District congressional race goes to a recount, it’s looking more and more likely that Tom Perriello will be the presumed congressman-elect. He starts the morning up 648 votes, a difference of 0.2 percent of the vote.

While that’s still within the state-funded recount margin of 0.5 percent, that margin is a landslide compared to where it was on Wednesday, as the vote count for Perriello and incumbent Virgil Goode bounced within 0.01 percent of each other throughout the day.

Reached by telephone this morning, Perriello says that it looks like the votes should be in by around 12pm. “The vote I think is now beyond what a recount would switch, and it looks like we’re going to be headed to Washington,” says Perriello.

Goode issued a press release at 7pm last night that said that “any declarations of winners and losers in this race is premature.”

“This contest is undeniably close, the vote totals have greatly varied back and forth since election night, and the official counting process is still ongoing,” said Goode. “It is important that we take the time for a fair and thorough process to ensure that every legitimate vote is counted. We remain optimistic that we will prevail when this process is completed.”