November 22, 2005
STATEMENT OF FORMER DEMOCRAT ATTORNEY GENERAL AND FORMER STATE BOARD OF ELECTIONS MEMBER
-Regarding the Attorney General Election-
RICHMOND – Former Democrat Attorney General Stephen Rosenthal and former State Board of Elections member and Republican Delegate John H. (“Jack”) Rust issued the following statement today regarding the Attorney General election:
“We are troubled by the lack of transparency in a vote certification process that consistently has shifted vote totals in the attorney general election.”
“Election day is a public event open to observers. Local electoral boards were required by law to conduct canvasses at public meetings attended by citizens, the press, and observers from both political parties. After the local canvasses concluded, however, the State Board of Elections’ certification process has gone behind closed doors with little or no explanation to the public. In what should be an open and readily apparent vote certification process, the State Board appears to have ignored its role of managing the certification process and has allowed local electoral boards free reign to do so without public involvement.”
“After the initial election night count, the margin of victory was roughly 3,000 votes. In the ensuing time, that margin has decreased by about 90% to less than 350 votes. The public and both political parties have been provided little explanation by neither the State Board nor the local election boards for such a significant shift in vote tallies.”
“We agree wholeheartedly with respected political scientist Larry Sabato as quoted in the Richmond Times-Dispatch: “‘It’s amazing, that’s all you can say,’ he said. ‘The net changes are all going in one direction, toward the Democrat, which is unusual but possible.'”
“The statistical unlikelihood of such an odd occurrence raises concerns. More worrisome is the undisclosed process, not provided for in the Code of Virginia, by which some of these changes have been discovered. For example, the State Board of Elections notified both campaigns that 56 additional paper ballots had yet to be counted in Chesapeake. This number subsequently has changed multiple times. Apparently, additional ballots were counted last Friday. Then, after the counting was supposedly complete, the tally changed again on Monday with no explanation other than that an ‘error’ had been made. Last Thursday, the State Board of Elections reduced the vote total for Bob McDonnell by 10 votes in Fauquier County notwithstanding the fact that the Fauquier County electoral board had certified the higher number and without providing any explanation to the public.”
“It appears that the electoral boards in Chesapeake, Fauquier and elsewhere have unilaterally decided to re-open sealed envelopes or locked machines or to change vote totals without public participation and without being directed to do so by the three-member State Board of Elections or a court. Such renegade vote ‘counting’ falls outside the powers these boards hold under the law of Virginia and raises serious questions about the integrity of the process by which the vote total has changed since Election Day.”
“We call upon the State Board of Elections to manage and control a certification process that is fair and transparent to the public, press and both political parties.”
Paid for and Authorized by the Republican Party of Virginia
——————————————————–
I hope this is a passing concern. Local election boards need to follow the rules and just follow the rules and carefully follow the rules.
