New report: Election deniers hold some positions of power across Virginia
As Election Day approaches, some are concerned about vulnerabilities in Virginia’s election system.
Election deniers are in key positions of power in several Virginia jurisdictions: Albemarle, Frederick, Hampton, Loudoun, Lynchburg, Newport News, Portsmouth and Roanoke. That’s according to a new report from the nonpartisan group Informing Democracy, which highlights comments and social media posts of elections officials.
Peter Bondi is managing director of Informing Democracy.
“What’s important to us is to make sure that any personal biases don’t make their way into the official duties,” Bondi says. “To ensure that elections are administered in a nonpartisan manner.”
Personal beliefs like one local electoral board member mentioned in the report who says he believes Donald Trump probably won the 2020 election by millions of votes. Or another who quoted QAnon and asked, “Why are people doubting this?”
“Part of our mission is to help Virginians prevent some of the efforts we’ve seen in other states to interfere with election outcomes,” says Bondi.
In addition to calling out election deniers in key positions of power, the report raises concerns about election staff turnover in key localities and highlights partisan training for poll watchers — all sources for concern for what happens after the polls close next month and the vote counting begins.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
