Will Republican Glenn Youngkin win Virginia’s governorship tonight, only to see his victory swept away in a wave of phony absentee ballots and a riptide of votes that washes in from attics, car trunks, and sketchy vans with non-Virginia license plates?
This painfully familiar scenario has Republicans in and beyond the Old Dominion on edge, even as an October 28 Fox News poll of 1,015 likely voters found Youngkin with 53 percent support versus 45 percent for Democrat Terry McAuliffe, the commonwealth’s former governor. (Margin of error: +/- 3 percent.) Republicans know too well these words, attributed to Joseph Stalin: “It's not who votes that counts. It's who counts the votes.”
Worrisome signs have emerged in Fairfax County, where state election law already is being violated.
Code of Virginia § 24.2-701 states: Unless submitted in person, “Applications for absentee ballots shall contain the following information: 1. The applicant's printed name and the last four digits of the applicant's social security number.”
The Public Interest Legal Foundation, representing the conservative Virginia Institute for Public Policy, sued Fairfax County for violating this statute.
Fairfax County General Registrar Scott Konopasek did not dispute this claim. In fact, he echoed it.
In a joint stipulation to Virginia’s Circuit Court, both sides agreed Friday that Konopasek “has accepted and approved some applications for absentee and ‘vote by mail’ ballots that were submitted by mail (or other remote means) that did not include the last four digits of the applicants’ Social Security numbers.”
Alas, this did not satisfy the court. It dismissed PILF’s complaint, ruling that VIPP lacked standing to sue.
“The merits of the case were not reached,” PILF President J. Christian Adams, Esq. lamented. The former Justice Department Voting Section prosecutor added: “It is unfortunate that an important election will take place with the registrar of the largest county in Virginia breaking the law. It isn’t fair to change the rules in the middle of the game. Fairfax is the only county breaking the law.”
Also troublesome: Konopasek told Fox News “it’s a possibility that we will we have to wait until Friday” for conclusive election results. Virginia’s legislature made permanent 2020’s “temporary” COVID-19 vote rules. No-excuse absentee ballots may arrive until High Noon, three days post-election, provided they are postmarked by Election Day.
So, no one should be shocked if absentee ballots suddenly pour in from... who knows where?
Would McAuliffe tolerate ballot box hanky-panky on his behalf? The better question is: Would he encourage it?
McAuliffe, former Democrat National Chairman, is no election-integrity warrior. As governor, McAuliffe vetoed eight bills designed to disinfect the Old Dominion’s voting system. National Review dubbed him “Virginia’s Voter-Fraud Guru.”
On March 27, 2017, McAuliffe rejected three ballot-protection measures:
- Senate Bill 1253 would have required poll books to include voters’ DMV photos. This would have helped confirm that voters were who they said they were. McAuliffe scotched this legislation, fearing “voter confusion.”
- Senate Bill 1455 would have mirrored a federal law (42 USCS § 1973i) and banned paying people to register to vote. McAuliffe called this measure redundant and added, “There is no evidence this activity is occurring in the Commonwealth.” McAuliffe was silent about future evidence.
- Senate Bill 1581 would have mandated that registrars compare voter-registration applications against the Social Security Administration’s databases and similar others. It also required that voter rolls be audited annually, using that information.
Earlier that month, McAuliffe torpedoed three other efforts to cleanse Virginia’s ballot boxes.
- House Bill 2343 would have ordered the Department of Elections to connect county officials with other states’ voter rolls to assure that Virginians were registered only in Virginia. This is a grave problem: According to the Kansas Interstate Crosscheck Program – in February 2016 – 284,618 Virginia voters also were registered in other states. McAuliffe sank this measure to prevent “improper disenfranchisement.”
- House Bill 1428 would have required that absentee-ballot applications include a copy of the applicant’s photo ID.
- Senate Bill 872 ditto. McAuliffe called these two bills “unnecessary.”
McAuliffe also quashed two even earlier efforts to tidy Virginia’s elections.
- Senate Bill 1105 would have directed cities and counties to probe and audit their rolls whenever registered voters totaled more than 100 percent of eligible voters or, even worse, when ballots cast exceeded 100 percent of registered voters. The latter is called “stuffing the ballot box.” The State Election Board would have published the results of these inquiries. McAuliffe again screamed “improper disenfranchisement,” perhaps to enfranchise those who love voting so much that they can’t stop doing so.
- House Bill 1315 would have instructed county jury commissioners to provide registrars the names of those excused as jurors for the same reasons they may not vote: foreign citizenship, non-residency in Virginia, convicted-felon status, or adjudicated mental incapacity. McAuliffe’s veto made it easier for these people to vote in Virginia, though so prohibited.
“What does McAuliffe have against election integrity?” wondered Heritage Foundation scholar Hans von Spakovsky and Young Americans for Freedom National Chairman Grant Strobl, co-authors of the mind-blowing research cited here. “Why does he want to make it easier to commit fraud and harder for election officials to detect or deter it?”
McAuliffe’s at it again.
Just last week, he hired Marc Elias, Esq., the Democrat Party’s grim reaper of election law. Elias, whose background is shadier than a weeping willow, stands in the wings, ready to carry into the afterlife any Youngkin victory that falls within the margin of fraud.
GOP activists in the Old Dominion are thrilled with their standard bearer.
“Glenn Youngkin has meshed well with grassroots Virginians,” said Morton Blackwell, former Republican National Committeeman. “No wonder he’s pulling ahead in the polls.”
But Republicans also trust Democrats as far as they can throw Chesapeake Bay.
“We have verified hundreds of fraudulent absentee ballots,” a top state GOP official said via an October 24 e-mail. “Sent people to knock on doors to confirm the fraud. I need to identify several lawyers in each urban area to help us process challenges.”
Another Republican canvasser told me, “I have been going door to door for Youngkin as paid election veteran, and Youngkin ONLY loses this election if it is stolen. His support in the two GOP precincts I am working is OFF THE CHARTS, easily the best performance we've had since before 2010, when I began working this area.”
Glenn Youngkin’s best bet is to win a victory that’s too big for Democrats to steal. All of his supporters need to show up at the polls and bring everyone else they know who even leans pro-Youngkin. The deal can be sealed en route.
Virginia’s polls are open until 7:00 p.m. Vote early, vote once, and then count every legitimate ballot.