Virginia Judge Orders Waynesboro Officials to Certify Election
A Virginia circuit court judge issued an order Monday that says the Waynesboro Board of Elections must certify the results of the 2024 election.
The order is a response to a lawsuit filed by five voters over recent comments and a lawsuit by Waynesboro Board of Elections (WBE) Chairman Curtis Lilly and Vice Chairman Scott Mares. It said they would refuse to certify the 2024 general election unless the votes were counted by hand. In the lawsuit filed Oct. 4, Lilly and Mares argued that using voting machines to count votes violates state law because the Virginia Constitution says ballots cannot be counted in secret. Because “neither the program counting the votes recorded on the ballots nor the ballots themselves can be examined,” when votes are counted via voting machines, they are therefore counted in secret.
The plaintiffs who sued Lilly and Mares argued that refusing to certify the election actually violates the Virginia Constitution. The circuit court judge agreed and in the order wrote that “the WBE is not obligated, or permitted, to count all the ballots at each precinct but rather they are to total the results reported from precinct-level officers of elections and report the results on the abstracts.”
The judge explained that Lilly and Mares’ argument to not certify the election “is an overstatement of the electoral board’s role,” which is “to train and oversee the precinct-level election officers and ensure that the numbers from each voting precinct in its jurisdiction are reported accurately. Electoral board members are not the individuals to contest the tabulations of the results. They are simply to confirm the numbers, certify and sign the abstracts and transmit the same to the [Virginia State Board of Elections].”
In a statement, John Powers, the director of power and democracy at the civil rights nonprofit Advancement Project, said the ruling is a win for voters in the Virginia city of Waynesboro. “This attempt to avoid certifying the election results has been stopped in its tracks,” he said. “Today also marks a major win for our democracy. Election certification has long been a settled issue of American law and today’s ruling reaffirms that fundamental principle. Our election system only works if officials honor their duty and respect voters’ right to have their votes counted.”
Learn more about the case here.
Previous update, Oct. 22:
Five voters in the city of Waynesboro, Virginia filed a lawsuit on Monday against the city’s Board of Elections Chairman Curtis Lilly and Vice Chairman Scott Mares to ensure they’ll certify the results of the upcoming election.
The lawsuit comes after Lilly and Mares filed their own lawsuit saying that they will refuse to certify the upcoming general election unless the state’s policy prohibiting them from hand-counting ballots is changed. The pair argued that the way votes are tabulated through voting machines in Virginia violates the state’s constitution and “to certify the election under the current legal and administrative regime, therefore, would be a violation of their oaths of office, and, absent Court intervention, shall refuse to certify the 2024 election.”
But the new lawsuit filed by the five Waynesboro voters argues that Lilly and Mares’ declaration to refuse to certify the election violates the Virginia Constitution and asks the court to order the Waynesboro Board of Elections to certify the election once the votes have been tabulated.
“My vote is my voice. I shouldn’t have to rely on the whims of election officials to ensure that my vote is counted,” Ann Criser-Shedd, one of the five plaintiffs, said according to the Augusta Free Press. “They are causing voters to mistrust the system and that could have a lasting impact. Our officials need to follow the law like every other election board.”
Learn more about the case here.
Original post, Oct. 15:
Election officials in Waynesboro, Virginia filed a lawsuit on Oct. 4 that says they will refuse to certify the upcoming general election unless the state’s policy on counting ballots is changed.
According to the lawsuit, which was first reported by the Staunton News Leader, Waynesboro County Board of Elections Chair Curtis Lilly and Vice Chair Scott Mares cast doubt on the accuracy of the county’s voting machines and argue that any elections decided by ballots tabulated from a voting machine are unconstitutional.
The lawsuit — filed against Virginia Commissioner of Elections Susan Beals, the Virginia Department of Elections, and the Waynesboro County Board of Elections — argues that because election officials are prohibited from hand-counting ballots, the voting machines that tabulate ballots are counting votes in secret “because neither the program counting the votes recorded on the ballots nor the ballots themselves can be examined.” They argue that this violates the Virginia Constitution, which says that ballots cannot be counted in secret.
On Election Day, election board members compare the votes tabulated to the number of ballots distributed and the number of voters who checked into a given polling place. Under Virginia law, the board members are prohibited from hand-counting ballots or handling the sealed ballots in any way once they’ve been tabulated by the voting machines.
In their complaint, Lilly and Mares state that “to certify the election under the current legal and administrative regime, therefore, would be a violation of their oaths of office, and, absent Court intervention, shall refuse to certify the 2024 election.”
In his affidavit, Lilly says that he believes “that the voting machines are conducting a secret canvass as prohibited by the Virginia Constitution.” He adds that he “will refuse to certify the 2024 election until such time as the legal regime permits for hand counting ballots, and certification would not result in a violation of the Virginia Constitution.”
Learn more about the case here.
This article was updated on Oct. 16 to reflect that Waynesboro is a city in Virginia. In the complaint, the plaintiffs identify themselves as the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the “Waynesboro County
Board of Elections.”