Election Integrity: Voter Rolls and Chain of Custody
The Fairfax GOP Election Integrity Working Group (EIWG) is organized into teams who recruit Republican election officers; organize the Poll Watcher operation; obtain chain-of-custody documentation; analyze election results and voter registration data; advocate for better laws; draft resolutions, and so much more. Since 2021 when the group first formed, improvements in transparency and better voter maintenance policies have been implemented by the Fairfax County Office of Elections under the current Registrar Eric Spicer, and by the Virginia Department of Elections under Elections Commissioner Susan Beals, appointed by Governor Youngkin.
The Biden Administration Finances Iran’s Terrorism
One hot evening in May, 2009, at the U.S. Embassy Baghdad, while the acrid smell of burning trash pits hung in the air, I took an evening stroll. All of a sudden, the Embassy’s “Big Voice” loudspeakers came alive — INCOMING! INCOMING! — and I dove into a bomb shelter. As our little cluster of Embassy staffers crouched low, mouths open to reduce compression injury, our bodies shook with the rocket’s explosion nearby. We found out later that the Iranian-made rocket killed a DoD employee by blowing up his trailer just north of the Embassy.
Imagine how we and the family of those killed by Iranian rockets would have felt if we discovered that our President had just given Iran 10 billion dollars — an act that any sane person knows would finance more rockets and terrorism.
National Groups Orchestrated Student Anti-Israel Protests
Late last Friday morning, on Gatehouse Road in Falls Church outside the headquarters of Fairfax County Public Schools, local Jewish American mother Anna Carlen joined other local Jewish citizens and parents in chants she never imagined she’d have to utter in America, “Just like 1942, FCPS silences Jews” and “Never again is now.”
In 1995, Carlen immigrated to the United States with her mother and young son to escape anti-semitism in Moscow, Russia, where a neighbor in their apartment building on Malaya Nikitskaya Street slipped drawings of a man hanging from the gallows and the Jewish symbol of the star of David.
Election Integrity: Building the Foundation for 2024
This is Part One of a three-part series on Election Integrity activities in the 2023 General Election. Part One is about Election Officers and Poll Watchers. Part Two will describe 2023 activities in cleaning the voter rolls, chain of custody documentation, and ongoing issues. Part Three will describe election-related legislation proposed for the 2024 Legislative session.
For the Fairfax GOP Election Integrity working group, the 2023 election was an opportunity to expand recruitment for Election Officers, and to build and test new automated systems for Poll Watchers.
Is Making the SAT/ACT Optional Better or Worse for Both Colleges and Students?
There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns had a real and persistent impact on our children’s education. Learning loss continues to be the subject of daily news reports, with SAT and ACT test scores at an all-time low. Overall, math and reading scores on standardized tests are at their lowest level in decades and the college admissions process was thrown into a tailspin when lockdown regulations made taking the traditional SAT and ACT tests difficult.
Governor Youngkin Honors Volunteerism and Community Service in Virginia
Governor Glenn Youngkin has announced the recipients of the 2023 Governor’s Volunteerism and Community Service Awards. The annual awards program spotlights the outstanding efforts of individual volunteers, organizations and their contributions on behalf of citizens throughout the Commonwealth.
“The resilience, generosity, and commitment of these volunteers exemplify the best of Virginia,” said Governor Glenn Youngkin.
Election News & Analysis
On the good news front, Supervisor Pat Herrity (R-Springfield) was re-elected to another term, ensuring that Fairfax will have at least one voice of common sense on the county board. With 54 percent of the vote, Herrity’s margin of victory was considerably wider than his 51 percent share four years ago.
Elsewhere in Fairfax County, Republican candidates fell short of victory — although in several races, the GOP share of the vote increased significantly from 2019. Most notably, in the Sully Magisterial District, GOP-endorsed school board candidate Cynthia Walsh garnered 45 percent of the vote — up from 41 percent for the GOP endorsee in 2019. On the county board side, GOP nominee for Sully Supervisor Keith Elliott won 40 percent of the vote — up from 37 percent for the GOP nominee four years earlier.
Who Paid for the Abortion Ads? Green Energy.
You may think the recent Virginia election was about abortion, but follow the money. The wave of advertising on that issue was largely bankrolled by the renewable energy industry. This election was about energy and delivered to those special interests the legislature they needed to stay in control of that agenda.
Dominion Energy Virginia increased its donations to Virginia state politicians six-fold in just four years. The other major donors in the energy regulation arena, Clean Virginia Fund, and its founder, have done much the same.
Will the Left Repudiate This Evil?
“You dance with the one who brung ya” goes one of the oldest sayings in politics.
It means that when elected officials get into public office, they vote with those who helped put them there.
The deadly Hamas attack on Israel, an event slaughtering 1,400 Israelis that Hamas political bureau member Ghazi Hamad called “our message to the world,” has exposed divisions up and down the Biden liberal-left coalition – and sent a warning signal about those who power that coalition.
Thank You, Veterans!
To our many veterans in Fairfax County, Virginia and elsewhere: THANK YOU.
As Governor Glenn Youngkin noted in his November 11, 2023 proclamation, Virginia is home to more than 690,000 veterans. “Virginians live in freedom today because of the contributions and sacrifices made by those who served and by their family members,” Governor Youngkin rightly said.
READ THE ENTIRE 2023 VETERANS DAY PROCLAMATION:
By virtue of the authority vested by the Constitution of Virginia in the Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, there is hereby officially recognized: Veterans Day