State Official Questions Delay of 100,000 Voter Registrations in Virginia

An elected state official has questioned why Virginia’s Division of Elections hasn’t been extra forthcoming about the reason for delays in processing round 100,000 voter registrations forward of the midterms.

Sen. Lionell Spruill, a Virginia Democrat representing District 5 in a key state elections oversight position, publicly wrote to elections commissioner Susan Beals on Thursday demanding an evidence.

This comes after Beals blamed “intermittent community points” for the difficulty. Beals mentioned in a press release that round 107,000 voter registrations have been despatched to native registrars for processing “to make sure voters could be appropriately registered to vote.”

“The problem is now resolved and all impacted registrations have been recognized,” she mentioned.

“No voter registration information was misplaced, however the concern will trigger a rise in processing voter registration purposes on the native stage,” she added.

In his letter, Spruill mentioned he was upset to be taught in regards to the concern in a newspaper.

“Sooner or later, when difficulties like these come up, the chairpersons of the Senate and Home privileges and elections committees ought to obtain notification in order that we’re totally knowledgeable as a part of our duty to supervise the operations of your division,” Spruill wrote.

Additional, Spruill mentioned he’s “very involved that the division has not been forthcoming to the general public” on the small print of the community points inflicting the backlog.

Virginia Elections

Virginia’s elections have at occasions been very shut, Spruill mentioned, citing a 2018 Home of Delegates election that was decided by a tie-breaking drawing of names from a bowl.

Spruill emphasised the necessity for secure and dependable elections in Virginia and mentioned it’s “necessary that we’re as clear as attainable with the general public concerning these sorts of important authorities features to make sure continued integrity.”

“It’s completely important that each one who desires to vote is ready to solid their vote,” Spruill mentioned.

State Sen. Scott Surovell (D-District 36) shared Spruill’s letter on social media, noting that it went some methods to bringing transparency round what he mentioned is a “failure to get 107,000 voter registration purposes processed.”

“We’d like some solutions,” he added.

The delay in processing voter registrations comes as a county in northern Virginia stopped utilizing election software program by Konnech Corp. after the corporate’s government was arrested.

This 12 months, Virginia will permit same-day voter registration on the Nov. 8 midterm election day. Virginia began early in-person voting on Sept. 23.

The Epoch Instances has emailed Virginia’s Division of Elections for remark.