With one week to go before Virginia’s high-stakes election, a county elections regulator is accused of refusing to appoint Republican election officers in violation of state law.
The complaint alleges that the Campbell County Electoral Board and its director, Kelly L. Martin, have failed to fill Republican election officer positions in several precincts. According to the lawsuit, filed by the Campbell County Republican Committee, the board has more than 40 qualified Republicans from which to choose, but “Defendants have intentionally refused to comply with the law.”
“Defendants have been given ample notice of their obligations under Virginia law, they have received several requests to respect the rights of the Plaintiffs, and they have ample time to bring each precinct into compliance,” the complaint, filed in Campbell County Circuit Court, charges.
Virginia’s constitution is pretty clear on the equal placement of election officers, or poll workers. Representation, “as far as practicable,” has to be given to both major political parties. The same language applies to precinct chief and assistant chief election officers.
Virginia law requires that the “representation of the two parties shall be equal at each precinct having an even number of officers and shall vary by no more than one at each precinct having an odd number of officers.” The law also states that officers should be drawn from party lists of nominees.
“These legal requirements are mandatory and non-discretionary,” the complaint states. “Defendants have persistently refused to provide the required party parity across precincts.” In Brookneal, for instance, the local GOP asserts that “only one election official is a Republican.” At the time the complaint was filed, there was not one Republican poll worker in Gladys precinct, the lawsuit alleges.
“Republicans have a legal right to fair representation in the administration of Virginia’s elections,” Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters said in a press release. “It’s unacceptable for Democrats to weaponize local election boards to shut out Republican nominees.”
Campbell County elections director Kelly Martin did not return The Federalist’s request for comment.
Election Protection
The RNC has filed similar complaints in other states to guard against Democrats shutting out Republican poll workers and observers. But the matter in Virginia is more pressing. Next Tuesday, voters — who haven’t already cast ballots in the commonwealth’s lengthy early-voting period — will head to the polls in a critical election for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general, as well as state delegates. The off-year statewide elections in Virginia and New Jersey, rightly or wrongly, will be closely watched as a political forecast for next year’s midterms and as an early survey on President Donald Trump’s agenda and the Democrats’ resistance to it.
As the elections approach, expect a flurry of legal challenges on both sides. The RNC’s election integrity team, sources on the ground tell The Federalist, continues to build on its election protection campaign in the 2024 election cycle. Last year, the effort deployed tens of thousands of volunteers and lawyers to battleground states in what the RNC described as a “proactive litigation effort.” In many ways, on many fronts, the program paid off.
But some conservative grassroots organizers have complained that the general effort to make sure Republicans are represented at the polls hasn’t been as robust in a non-presidential or midterm year.
“My frustration is, as it has been as long as I’ve been in this business, the party puts all of its efforts into presidential years and then everyone disappears. It makes it so much harder the next time around,” a GOP election law expert told The Federalist in an interview.
The big problem in many states, including Virginia and New Jersey, the source said, is finding enough Republicans to step up and work and monitor the polls, “especially in blue and purple counties where we don’t have enough Republican presence.”
Linda Kerns, a longtime election law attorney who worked on the RNC’s exhaustive election integrity campaign in Pennsylvania last year, said there’s much to feel confident about heading into next week’s elections.
“Of course every election has its problems, but this is a new RNC that’s devoted to election integrity,” Kerns, who practices law in New Jersey as well, told The Federalist in an interview. “They have the infrastructure and they are working all day, every day to make sure the vote is safe.”
The lawsuits in Virginia and elsewhere suggest election protection remains top of mind for the RNC.
“No one should be discouraged from voting,” Kerns said.
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