VA HD race Gop leads by 82,gave wrong ballot to 668 voters in liberal precinct, could flip VA house

[KelleyKramer]

That's really the only thing these Republican bastards are good at, stealing elections ....


Major Concerns in Virginia HD-28, Including Disenfranchised Voters, “Split Precincts,” Call Election Results Into Serious Question

http://bluevirginia.us/2017/11/audio-serious-concerns-in-virginia-hd-28-including-disenfranchised-voters-split-precincts-call-election-results-into-serious-question

I just got off a call (see audio below) with Virginia House Democratic Leader David Toscano and Marc Elias of Perkins Coie’s Political Law practice regarding some VERY serious concerns about the election last Tuesday in Virginia HD-28 (Fredericksburg City, Stafford County). Note that the State Board of Elections website currently shows Republican Bob Thomas, Jr. leading Democrat Joshua Cole by a slim margin of 82 votes (11,842-11,760). However, there are now not only questions about absentee ballots that were not counted in Stafford County, but also – as Marc Elias explains – very serious questions regarding possibly illegitimate “split precincts” in Fredericksburg City.

On the first issue, Elias stressed that Stafford County must count the 55 absentee ballots that have not yet been counted and that those 55 Virginians “should not be disenfranchised because of errors made by government officials.” Elias added that the Stafford County Registrar himself stated, “There is no possible way that these ballots should not have been available to the Registrar on Election Day before close of polls.” Why is this significant? Because, as Elias explained, “ballots that are delivered to the Registrar before the close of polls are lawful ballots to be counted in Virginia,” but that “some government error” negated the ability of the voters (who “did everything right”) to have their votes counted. Elias further explained that, “in this country and under the U.S. constitution, errors by the government don’t get to be the ground to disenfranchise voters.” Elias concluded that “the rights of these [military and other] voters under the 1st and 14th amendment [are] going to prevail and these ballots will be counted.”

On the second issue, regarding the “split precincts” in Fredericksburg City, Elias explained that this “seems to have resulted in a…significant number of voters in HD-28 being denied their right to vote in the HD-28 delegate race.” Elias said “we think it affects around 650 voters, which is obviously more than the margin that currently separates the two candidates.” The problem, according to Elias, is that only one “split precinct” (between HD-28 and HD-88) is permitted in Fredericksburg under Virginia’s 2011 redistricting statute. Elias continued (bolding added by me for emphasis):

The problem is, when you look at the unofficial results of the election [currently posted on the SBE website], it actually shows three precincts in Fredericksburg that were split between HD-28 and HD-88. The two extra split precincts are precincts that the statute says are to be entirely within HD-28. That means that ALL of the voters in those precincts should have been given ballots to vote for HD-28 and NONE of them should have been given ballots to vote in HD-88. The [SBE website] seems to suggest the opposite of that, which is that some were given for 28 and some were given for 88. Specifically, the unofficial results show 688 votes that were cast in HD-88 between the two precincts combined. Now, this is a very very serious issue, because…that is a state law, and Registrars are not free to ignore the redistricting statutes. Statutes are there to delineate who cast ballots in what districts…This is not something we have drawn a firm conclusion on, it is something we are investigating. It may be that there is a simple explanation for this…We’re being very methodical about looking at this. But if you look at the website, it appears 668 voters were denied their right to vote for the delegate who represents them by law in the 28th district. Now obviously, 668 votes is a far greater number than the number of votes that decided the election in HD-28. And if you look at the unofficial results there, based on a partisan analysis, it certainly would seem to change the outcome of the election…be race determinative…Obviously, it is not a tolerable situation for 668 voters to be disenfranchised – period – and particularly not in an election where those votes likely were race determinative of the outcome.

.

[MaeScott]

1. FIGHT! Im tired of Dems rolling over.

[Lee-Lee]

2. Only way to correct that is redo that election

It will be interesting to see how the courts go on this.

[LisaL]

3. Has there even been election ordered redone?

If election is ordered redone, how do you guarantee that people who voted will show up again? If the people were given incorrect ballots, and the name wasn't on the ballot, then I doubt there could be a good outcome.

[Lee-Lee]

6. They know from the rolls who voted but not who got a wrong ballot

So everyone has to be allowed to revote if you are trying to make it right.

And that raises bigger questions, such as if the number of wrong ballots given out ends up lower than the number of people who don’t make it to the polls on a redone election because it’s off cycle what version has less legitimacy, the one where some people got a bad ballot or ten one where some people didn’t show because it was an off day election and they didn’t know or couldn’t make arrangements to be there?

[unc70]

10. NC had to redo several races a few years ago

We had a disaster of election some years ago where most everything that could go wrong, did go wrong with election systems. One county had to revote because a voting machine lost all the early ballots without a paper trail. We disallowed such voting machines after that.

[volstork]

4. The only way the GOP can win

is to cheat.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. Agree. FIGHT! . . . . nt

[Not Ruth]

7. Sounds like 2 elections need to be redone, hd28 and hd88

[FailureToCommunicate]

8. AND 2016 general.

just saying.

[3catwoman3]

19. Damn right.

3 stolen elections is just outrageous.

[onenote]

12. The margin in the 88th District was over 4000 votes

so no need to re-do anything in that district. Even if it was assumed all of the votes counted in the 88th that should have been counted in the 28th were for the Democratic candidate, the result wouldn't be changed in the 88th.

[Not Ruth]

18. HD88 has nothing to do with margin or results and everything to do with running a proper election

Unlike HD28, which has to do with all of the above. If anything is off, redoing the election should be standard procedure, as many times as it needs to happen to get it right.

[onenote]

20. That isn't the way it works. Harmless error doctrine in law

The impact on the 28th may not be harmless, so they need to deal with that. But the impact on the 88th falls squarely within the harmless error doctrine.

[Takket]

9. How can you have a "split precinct"

Seems like you are just asking for mistakes to be made! Is this the result of gerrymandering down to the street level?

[KelleyKramer]

11. No, it happens ...

You have to remember there are many races.. state house, state senate, congressional district, city council, school boards, etc etc

It does happen when some of those do not all line up exactly for a particular precinct

[Thor_MN]

16. I worked as election judge in a polling location that straddled two school districts.

Congressional district was the same, but the school district varied depending on the street address.

It sucks as you not only have to determine that the person is in the right polling place, but which ballot they need to use. And then you have the people that mess up and request a new ballot, so you have to do it all over again (not supposed to look at the partially filled out ballot.)

I hate split precincts - much easier to deal with only one ballot for everyone.

[Sam McGee]

13. Not exactly

I'm the secretary of the county Electoral Board in a rural Virginia county not far from Stafford County.
'
In Virginia, each municipality that holds elections (counties and incorporated towns or cities) has a 3-member Electoral Board that is responsible for administering elections in accordance with state and federal law. The Board is made up of two membes from one party, one from the other party, with the majority being the party of the serving governor -- that is, because our governor is a Democrat, two of us are Democrats, one is a Republican. In our case, we decided long ago there would be no split votes -- all our votes are 3-0 because the laws are clear and we administer by the law.

Now -- as for Stafford County.

Absentee ballots. Absentee ballots that are mailed in MUST BE IN THE POST OFFICE THAT SERVES THE REGISTRAR NOT LATER THAN THE TIME THE POLLS CLOSE. Polls close at 7:00 PM Tuesday. The Stafford County Registrar picked up ballots at the PO when the PO closed -- he got all the ballots in the PO. No more mail was delivered to the PO until Wednesday morning, almost 12 hours after the polls closed. 55 ballots were in that delivery. Those ballots are too late to be counted. They may have been in the USPS chain, but they had not been delivered to the servicing PO, thus, they cannot be counted. There is no malfeasance, no corrupt or azy "guvmint officials" -- there are voters who don't get their ballots in the mail in a timely fashion. Here it is more than a week after the election and we still see absentee ballots dribbling in -- they are not counted. Postmark is irrelevant; USPS barcode is irrelevant -- must be in the PO that serves the registrar before close of polls. Period.

Split districts. Virginia is divided into 100 House of Delegates districts, each of which elects a delegate to the HOD. In a few -- I think the number is 4 or 5 -- locations around the state, there are polling places that straddle two districts. Thus, if you vote at the Holy Word of God Baptist Church on Church Road in Bug Tussle, VA, you must tell the person handing out ballots that you live in District 28 or District 88 so they can give you the ballot for your district.

IN FACT, the pollbook -- which is the paper book, or, the database on the electronic pollbook, lists voter name, address, date of birth, etc., etc., AS WELL AS LISTING THE VOTER'S HOD DISTRICT. Thus, in the case of a split precinct, when a voter is checked in at the pollbook station, the person at the pollbook should tell the voter "You are in District XX" and should also tell the ballot officer to issue that person a ballot for the voter's home district.

I don't know what happened in Stafford County. The polling place in question serves Districts 28 and 88. How ballots were mixed up is beyond me -- could have been, when the Electoral Board and Registrar were packing ballots to go to the polling place, they packed ballots for one district in the wrong box; could be the pollbook operator and ballot officer were not paying attention. Either way, I have no idea how this will turn out and I'm glad none of my precincts is split -- all our polling places are in one district.

[KelleyKramer]

14. Not exactly?? Then you said "I don't know what happened in Stafford County"

I don't understand, how can you say not exactly, and "I don't know what happened in Stafford County"

If you don't know what happened, then how can you say ANYTHING that happened 'exactly' ???

You also said...

"How ballots were mixed up is beyond me"

Now I am even more confused how you can say anything exactly

[bigbrother05]

15. From your description, the polling place serviced multiple precincts

Some of those precincts voted in different HOD districts, but the precinct in question was not supposed to be internally split. So somehow folks were given ballots for the wrong district, so the obvious solution would be to revote that precinct. The question would be whether only those that were on the books that day would be allowed or if it would be open to all in that precinct.

[Cryptoad]

17. Welcome to DU,,,,,Comrade!

[questionseverything]

22. looks like fredericksburg city election officials

set the election up illegally

only 1 split precinct allowed by law and they presented 3 split precincts

[Roland99]

21. K&R