RNC Leadership Changes Bring Focus On Election Integrity
(Photo credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The Republican National Committee elected new leadership a week ago, naming Michael Whatley to replace embattled Ronna McDaniel as Chair, and Lara Trump as co-chair. The shake-up extends to more than top leadership with the RNC announcing it has hired Fairfax County local, Scott Presler to help with ballot chase operations. The Daily Caller outlines the plans here, Lara Trump Announces RNC Hiring Scott Presler To Lead Legal Ballot Chasing Operations.
Here in Virginia, Governor Youngkin recently vetoed key election integrity bills, but there’s a lot of work remaining on the national level. The Democrat Party is way ahead in terms of legal challenges to election processes, but Newsweek reports that the RNC Begins Spending Money on Legal Challenges. The Hill writes about the new focus here, Lara Trump says top priority at RNC is ‘protecting the vote’.
Ranked Choice Voting:
Last year, the RNC and separately, the Fairfax GOP, under the leadership of our Election Integrity Working Group, both adopted resolutions to oppose ranked choice voting. This voting format has been met with mixed reviews from voters, and Sharyl Attkisson did a segment about the pros and cons of ranked choice voting on her Sunday show, The Full Measure. You can watch the video and read the transcript here, https://fullmeasure.news/newest-videos/the-vote#
Act Today On Key Election Integrity Bills!
Fairfax GOP Election Integrity Team
The deadline for “cross-over”, when bills that pass either the House or Senate “cross over” to the other chamber for a vote, is Tuesday, February 13. Currently, there are 17 Democrat-sponsored bills (9 in the House and 8 in the Senate) that will damage election integrity in Virginia. Republican legislators MUST VOTE “NO” on these bills!
The bad news is that given the Democrat majority in both chambers, most if not all, bills will pass. However, the good news is that IF the Republican legislators vote NO on these bills, they’ll send a clear message to Governor Youngkin to veto every single one of them. The Democrats don’t have the votes to override the Governor’s veto.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
To keep Virginia’s election laws from weakening, every Republican legislator needs to hold the line! Your emails and/or phone calls are vital. Please contact your Republican legislators this week, as soon as possible. After cross-over, the Members of the House of Delegates will be voting on the bills that have passed the Senate, and the Senators will be voting on the bills that have passed the House.
Here are some templates for you to use, along with links to files with contact info for each Senator and Delegate, and links to each of these bad Democrat-sponsored bills.
SAMPLE EMAIL (SENATE)
List of Virginia Senators’ contact information – Download here
Group list of emails for all Senators to paste in BCC field – Download here
Sample email for Senator (individual or group) – Download here
SAMPLE EMAIL (HOUSE)
Virginia Delegates’ contact information – Download here
Group list of emails for all Delegates to paste in BCC field – Download here
Sample email for Delegate (individual or group) – Download here
LINKS TO THE FULL TEXT AND HIGHLIGHTED CHANGES OF THE 17 ELECTION BILLS TO OPPOSE:
SB 196 – Voter registration; list maintenance data standards, challenges to a voter’s registration. Highlighted text changes (Restricts General Registrar abilities to perform voter roll maintenance and to use certain sources of information for voter roll maintenance.)
SB 246 – Limited-duration licenses and driver privilege cards and permits; extends validity. Highlighted text changes
(Eliminates identifying features used to distinguish between citizen and non-citizen state-issued driver’s permits and special ID cards)
SB 270 – Presidential primaries; ranked choice voting. Highlighted text changes (Institutes Ranked Choice Voting in Presidential Primaries. We oppose Ranked Choice Voting for all elections including primaries.)
SB 300 – Voter registration; list maintenance activities, required identification information. Highlighted text changes (Multiple Issues with quality of list maintenance)
SB 315 – Voter registration; registration of Department of Motor Vehicles customers, automatic update. Highlighted text changes
(All DMV interactions will automatically update an individual’s voter registration records without consent or option to opt-out)
SB 364 – Elections; protection of election officials, penalty. Highlighted text changes (Without specific definitions of 24.2-1000 terms such as threaten, intimidate, harass, and coerce, the use of a criminal charge for those actions as a precursor for a civil lawsuit is an invitation to lawfare in possible violation of the First Amendment.)
SB 428 – Elections; allows for any local or constitutional office to be conducted by ranked choice voting. Highlighted text changes (Expands Ranked Choice Voting in local races. We oppose Ranked Choice Voting for all elections.)
SB 606 – Voter registration; list maintenance, data sharing. Highlighted text changes (Re-enters Virginia into ERIC, the Electronic Registration Information Center, membership agreement, exposing private info to 3rd parties and compromising list maintenance)
HB 26 – Voter identification; accepted forms of identification, private entities licensed or certified. Highlighted text changes
(Allows private entities licensed by state agencies to issue voter IDs that do not require proof of residency.)
HB 623 – Rights of voters; covered practices, civil cause of action, standing, jurisdiction, and venue. Highlighted text changes (Multiple issues)
HB 904 – Voter registration; list maintenance activities, cancellation procedures, required record matches. Highlighted text changes (Limits the data that can be used from multiple sources including other states, limits staff assessments for voter list maintenance, removes the Registrar from decision-making and eliminates deadlines.)
HB 939 – Elections administration; prohibits possession of firearm within 100 feet of certain locations. Highlighted text changes (Restricts and punishes citizens for exercising their Second Amendment rights.)
HB 942 – Polling places and voter satellite offices; locations, restrictions, requirements, & considerations. Highlighted text changes (Limits available locations to place a satellite and vilifies police and sheriffs.)
HB1177 – Voter registration; list maintenance, data sharing. Highlighted text changes
(Forces Virginia to rejoin ERIC, the Electronic Registration Information Center)
HB 1454 – Limited-duration licenses and driver privilege cards and permits; extends validity. Highlighted text changes (Eliminates identifying features used to distinguish between citizen and non-citizen state-issued driver’s permits and special ID cards)
HB 1490 – Absentee voting in person; voter satellite offices, days and hours of operation. Highlighted text changes (Transfers authority from Electoral Board to County or City governing body for in-person early voting and setting satellites dates and hours.)
HB 1534 – Voter or voter’s registration; challenges to candidate qualifications or eligibility. Highlighted text changes (Suppresses voter right to challenge another voter’s registration directly to the Registrar.)
To learn more about the Fairfax GOP’s Election Integrity efforts click HERE. Contact Andi Bayer, apmjt.bayer@verizon.net if you have additional questions.
Election Integrity: Legislation in the Virginia General Assembly and U.S. Congress
Republicans will have many opportunities to influence election related legislation in 2024, given the razor-thin majorities the Democrats won in the House (51-49) and Senate (21-19) on November 7. Citizens can present written, zoom or in-person comments for hearings on specific bills; contact legislators with emails, phone calls and letters; use social media to educate the public; and publish letters to the editor and op-eds. To help organize those efforts, the Fairfax GOP Election Integrity Working Group will present a webinar about the 2024 legislative session on December 18 at 7:30 p.m.
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.
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.
Virginia Was Justified in Its Decision to Leave ERIC
Good news, Virginians! Virginia has withdrawn its membership from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a non-profit, multi-state partnership that purports to keep voter rolls ‘clean and updated,’ but could better be defined as a partisan mass voter registration effort funded by unsuspecting taxpayers.
Virginia now joins seven other states (Louisiana, Florida, Missouri, West Virginia, Alabama, Ohio, and Iowa) which have also terminated their contracts with ERIC over the last few months.
Against Ranked-Choice Voting
In a March 21 general meeting, the Fairfax GOP membership passed a resolution opposing ranked-choice voting. The full text of the resolution follows:
WHEREAS, On January 27, 2023 the Republican National Committee adopted the following resolution to officially oppose ranked-choice voting across the country:
“WHEREAS, The mission of the Republican Party is to act as the party of liberty, the party of equality, the party of opportunity for all, the party of favoritism for none and to encourage and allow the broadest possible participation of all voters in Republican Party activities at all levels and to ensure that the Republican Party is open and accessible to all Americans;
Republican Jeffrey Shapiro Named to County Electoral Board
The Fairfax County Republican Committee is pleased to announce the appointment of Jeffrey Shapiro as the newest member of the Fairfax County Electoral Board. He will replace Bettina Lawton, who is completing her three-year term. Shapiro will begin serving his three-year term on January 1, 2023.
Shapiro attended Brown University, graduating magna cum laude in 1983 with a degree in history. He then attended Harvard Law School, graduating cum laude in 1986. He practiced as a corporate litigator for five years and then joined the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in the U.S. Department of Justice, serving under both President Bush and President Clinton.
Want to Serve on Fairfax County’s Electoral Board?
The Fairfax GOP will soon nominate three candidates for a three-year term on the county’s electoral board. The Fairfax court will then select one of these names to serve on the board.
If you are interested, please email ElectionIntegrity@FairfaxGOP.org with your contact information and resume (include any political work, paid or unpaid).
The application deadline is Monday, November 28 at 5:00 PM. For more information on the electoral board itself, please visit https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/elections/electoral-board/members.
VOTER INFO: How to Remove Your Name from the Absentee Ballot List
Have you received an absentee ballot in the mail and wondered why, because you never requested one? Or maybe you received an absentee ballot for someone who moved from your address years ago — or for a complete stranger?
If so, you (or the person for whom the ballot was intended) are one of hundreds of thousands of Virginia citizens who were placed on the Permanent Absentee list in 2021 by the Democrat-run legislature. You weren’t asked for your permission to be placed on the list. You could have missed the one notification that you were on the list, because Election Registrars were instructed to send only a single mailing.