Conservatives raise fears of voter fraud in Virginia

On By Karl

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Former President Donald Trump and his allies keep saying Republicans can win Virginia.

“Virginia is in the game,” said Jeff Ryer, a Virginia spokesman for Trump’s campaign. “President Trump and Team Trump know Virginia is a battleground, which is among the reasons why President Trump is holding a rally here on Saturday. … Virginia is within the margin of error.”

This is a position that arouses suspicion in political circles. Joe Biden won Virginia by 10 percentage points in 2020. The state has voted for a Democrat in the last four presidential elections. Voting shows Kamala Harris is on track to win the state’s 12 delegate votes by at least five points.

But far-right figures are spreading false claims about voter fraud in Virginia. And local election officials in at least one county are already arguing they shouldn’t have to certify the election results. Meanwhile, Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares, both Republicans, successfully persuaded The U.S. Supreme Court will allow 1,600 suspected non-citizens to be removed from voter rolls just days before the election.

“Trump’s average voter turnout here is around 44%,” said Neil Newhouse, one of the founders of a polling firm in Virginia. “In no poll conducted and made public, he cannot receive more than 46% of the votes. It’s a steep, steep, steep climb for President Trump to win the state.

Virginia differs from many states expected to elect Harris in one important way: It has significant Republican influence over how elections are conducted because it has a Republican governor, a Republican attorney general and a Republican majority on the State Electoral College. and there are Republican majorities on local election boards.

While the effort to overturn Trump’s 2020 defeat has largely focused on swing states like Georgia and Pennsylvania where President Joe Biden’s margin of victory was slim, a majority Democratic state where Republicans have so much power over the election is a strong candidate for electoral challenges. The inflection point may be 2024 results.

Trump in 2020 filed a lawsuit Overturning the results in New Mexico, where Biden won by 11 points and where a Republican presidential candidate hasn’t won since 2004. Still, Republicans sent paperwork to Congress and the National Archives stating that they were alternate electors who would cast their votes for Trump. For him if his legal challenges are successful.

“I don’t think the margin will be much of a hurdle for those who oppose democracy,” said David Becker, founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, a nonpartisan group that works with election administrators across the country. “So we can just focus on the swing states, and I think that would be a mistake.”

Some Trump supporters say he can win Virginia without fraud

As Election Day approaches, the idea that Republicans could win Virginia is circulating in right-wing media, even according to an election prediction website five thirty eight It puts Harris ahead by six points.

Sergio Muñoz, vice president of Media Matters, a liberal nonprofit that focuses on conservative misinformation, said right-wing media has misled its audience into the idea that Trump is clearly leading and Democrats will try to cheat.

Munoz said he expects “lawsuits from Trump’s campaign and his allies in the Republican Party to be filed across the country challenging the results for Harris, even in states where no neutral observer expected her to win.”

About the conservative journalist Ann Vandersteel’s podcast In October, former Trump administration official William McGinley RNC’s outside advisor on election integrityHe told people in battleground states to sign up to volunteer as poll watchers. He listed swing states like Arizona and North Carolina and added: “I’d even put Virginia and Minnesota up there.”

Elon Musk shared a post In October, X claimed precincts in Virginia’s Henrico County, a county just outside Richmond that President Joe Biden won in 2020 with about 64% number of votes — More votes were counted in the 2020 election than there were registered voters. district quickly debunked rumor but later Repeated by Seth KeshelHe is one of the leading questioners of the legitimacy of the 2020 election.

Tennessee podcast host Shawn Farash, who also goes by “Captain Deplorable,” said on the Rumble podcast “Ungoverned” on Oct. 15 that there were recent polls showing Trump could win, but did not reference any polls. He argued that the Justice Department’s lawsuit seeking to block the purge of voter rolls in Virginia shows that Democrats are worried they can’t legitimately win the state.

“Why is the Justice Department suing the state of Virginia if Virginia is safely in the Democrats’ bag?” Farash asked. “The conclusion that requires the least amount of conjecture would be that they are relying on non-citizen voting to help tip the scales in favor of Kamala Harris in Virginia. “To me, that means Virginia is in play in a fair election.”

Youngkin and Miyares advance efforts against non-citizen voting

While non-citizen voting is extremely rare, Republicans raised alarms That’s what this election is about, as Trump and Johnson propose a bill that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote.

Youngkin has been an enthusiastic participant in his party’s efforts to end allegations of non-citizen voting. First, Youngkin instructed the state’s top elections official to create a process for daily removal of potential noncitizens from voter rolls. He then ordered the state to run an awareness campaign targeting illegal voting, among other things.

Federal law requires people to prove their citizenship when registering to vote. 2017 Research from the Brennan Center for Justice found that out of more than 23 million votes cast, 30 non-citizens voted, accounting for 0.0001% of the vote in those locations.

Under Virginia’s program, people are sent notices that they have been “declared non-citizens” and are given no information on how to re-register to vote, according to the lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice. Local election administrators have no discretion under the program to prevent voter cancellations “even if they have reason to believe the voter is a United States citizen,” the lawsuit said.

Dozens of people suspended in Prince William County earlier in the year were “likely U.S. citizens,” the lawsuit said.

Additionally, people arriving to vote will be greeted with signs stating that non-citizens are not allowed to vote.

“I made it very clear that if you are not a citizen and you vote, it is illegal and you will be prosecuted,” Youngkin said during a Sept. 5 meeting with the Republican Party to train poll watchers. “And this will be well communicated and publicized in every region.”

Judith Browne Dianis, executive director of the Advancement Project, the civil rights organization that first filed the lawsuit challenging Youngkin’s purge of voter rolls, told USA TODAY that voter pugs often target naturalized citizens who told a motor vehicle office years ago that they did not belong. He said he took it. I was a citizen but later I became a citizen. HE It happened in Texas Five years ago, that led the state to question nearly 100,000 registered voters. This effort was canceled after targeted naturalized citizens were sued.

“(Non-citizen voting) is a story they want to sell in this election to unfairly delegitimize the election outcome,” Dianis said, adding that signs at polling places “can scare people.”

“Non-citizens know they shouldn’t vote,” Dianis said.

Two in response to lawsuits filed by the Justice Department and civil rights groups. federal courts Blocked Virginia’s voter removal program on the grounds that it violated federal law. Republican Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares appealed those decisions to the Supreme Court and won.

“This decision ensures that with the election less than a week away, Virginians can vote with confidence knowing that Virginians will elect elected officials,” Miyares said in a press release.

Fight over election certification in Virginia

Two Republicans sitting on the three-person Waynesboro Electoral College, near Virginia’s western border sue the stateHe said they should not have to certify upcoming election results if the results were counted using a machine. The effort is controversial even among Republicans. Voters are countersuing to force them to approve.

The case touches on two fundamental pillars of the far-right movement that cast doubt on elections: the fact that machines are not used to count votes in American elections and that local governments do not have to certify election results that they view with skepticism. .

The case could upend Virginia’s 12 delegate votes to Harris. Under federal law, if a state does not send its electoral votes to Congress on time, those electoral votes will be subtracted from the total number of electoral votes needed to win. If Virginia’s vote had not been sent in, a candidate would have needed 264 votes instead of 270 to win.

Republicans sitting on county boards across the country voted dozens of times Not certifying electoral votes rarely delays the certification outcome, but often sows doubt. All of Virginia’s local boards of elections have Republican majorities because state law says a majority of appointees will be from the same party as the governor, who in this case is a Republican.

At the September event, Youngkin said the Republican majority was “really, really important.” His office did not respond to USA TODAY’s requests for comment. I previously told USA TODAY He said he was determined to sign the necessary paperwork to declare the winner of the state’s electoral votes.

Edgardo Cortés, former commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections, said in court Tuesday. “Gradual effects” About elections in Virginia unless Waynesboro’s board approves. Without local certification, the Virginia Board of Elections would not be able to certify the state’s results or would have to certify without Waynesboro, and the state’s certification would remain open to legal challenges, Cortés said.

Democrat Jennifer Lewis, 43, of Waynesboro, is one of five people who have countersued two election board members to force them to confirm.

“This isn’t about Republicans and Democrats,” Lewis said. “This is about the integrity of the election.”

Youngkin’s office did not respond to an inquiry for comment. The Virginia Department of Elections said it does not comment on pending litigation. Attorney General Jason Miyares’ office told USA TODAY Network they could not comment on pending litigation, but previously said: Cardinal News his office expects to fight Waynesboro board members in court.

Virginia uses hand-marked paper ballots statewide and are counted by electronic tabulation machines; That’s something Youngkin is trying to make clear to election skeptics worried about voting machines.

But Curtis Lilly, one of two board members who filed the lawsuit, said he was concerned about the possibility of tabulation machines changing votes. He said he did not think the machines actually changed votes and did not provide any specific evidence that the machines changed ballots.

Rich Anderson, chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, said he and the party can trust the machine counts because other verifications have been made.

“I urge boards to confidently certify to the State Board of Elections following numerous checks and verifications conducted on election night and beyond,” Anderson told USA TODAY in an email.