Virginia election officials refuse to certify November vote amid lawsuit
Two Republican officials are contesting the voting system ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
A lawsuit, filed in a Virginia courtroom, suggests that Republicans may contest the validity of the Virginia election at a later date. In echoes of Republican objections for the 2020 election, one official claims that the voting machines may be secretly hooked up to the internet, which would allow somebody to externally alter the results.
In the lawsuit, two Republican appointees to the Waynesboro Electoral Board complained that the voting machines are not verifiable and the voting will not be conducted in the open. Former President Donald Trump beat President Joe Biden by less than 600 votes in Waynesboro in 2020.
The lawsuit was filed in Waynesboro Circuit Court by Curtis Lilly, the chairman of the Waynesboro Electoral Board, and Scott Mares, the board’s vice chair, against Virginia Department of Elections Commissioner Susan Beals and State Board of Elections Chairman John O’Bannon.
Former President Donald Trump speaks during a Get Out the Vote Rally on March 2 in Richmond, Virginia. Republican officials in Waynesboro, Virginia, are contesting the voting machine arrangements for the 2024 election.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
The lawsuit states: “Board members are unable to personally review and verify that the voting machine program being used to count the ballots is keeping a true and accurate count; the voting machine program being used to count the ballots is recording the true and accurate count; and/or that the voting machine record tape accurately represents the ballots cast.
“The plaintiffs believe that the voting machine is counting the votes in secret because neither the program counting the votes recorded on the ballots nor the ballots themselves can be examined.”
Newsweek sought email comment on Tuesday from the Waynesboro Electoral Board and the Virginia Department of Elections.
Lilly attached an affidavit in which he explained that he “cannot ensure that the machines do not connect to the internet, allowing for vote counting algorithm manipulation, nor can I ensure with any certainty that the electronic ballot scanners are presenting results which are consistent with the contents of the ballot box.
“I have taken an oath to uphold the Virginia Constitution, which prohibits the secret canvassing of ballots. As such, I believe that certifying the 2024 election would be a violation of the Virginia Constitution.”
In the 2020 election, Trump and several key allies claimed that voting machines were rigged for Biden across the country. Two voting machine companies have since taken legal action for defamation.
In April 2023, Fox News settled a defamation suit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787 million and other cases are pending against former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, businessman Mike Lindell and others.
In November 2016, Trump contested the Virginia result while running against Hillary Clinton. In a post-election comment on social media, he wrote that there was “serious voter fraud” in Virginia.
In response, Waynesboro registrar Lisa Jeffers denied that there were any problems.
“I feel very comfortable and confident that the election was exactly as people wanted to see it turn out,” she told Virginia’s Staunton News Leader.
Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, Clinton’s running mate, wrote on social media that Trump should not “insult our voters” with such claims.
