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 Virginia has withdrawn its membership from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a non-profit, multi-state partnership that purports to keep voter rolls ‘clean and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.
Daily Updates on Early Voting Now Available Online
Last week, the Fairfax County Office of Elections started publishing a multi-page, detailed online daily report showing early voting numbers. To view the report, go to the Fairfax Elections Office homepage and scroll down to the section titled “UNOFFICIAL ABSENTEE VOTING REPORT.” The link to the report will be updated each day with a new pdf file.
The report is described as a daily snapshot: “This report provides a snapshot in time of absentee & early in person voting activity for the November 8, 2022 General Election. The data in this ongoing report is neither official nor final.”
FYI: County Will Send Letter to Correct Inaccurate Voter Mailing
To correct an inaccurate state mailing, Fairfax County will be sending voters in the Towns of Clifton, Herndon and Vienna a notice about their polling place.
Recently, the Virginia Department of Elections in Richmond sent a mailing to voters in these three towns that incorrectly identified their polling place. In Fairfax County, about 25,000 voters in total are affected.
To fix the state’s mistake, the Fairfax County Office of Elections will send a letter to voters in these towns with their correct polling place.
Information for Election Officers on Konnech Software
On October 5, the Fairfax County Office of Elections stopped using Konnech’s PollChief software to manage Election Officer applications, training, communications and assignments. The County started using PollChief software in 2016.
The previous day, October 4, Konnech President Eugene was arrested in Michigan, in an investigation into the suspected “theft of personal identifying information” of Los Angeles County election workers. The arrest was announced by the Los Angeles County District Attorney, who is seeking Yu’s extradition to Los Angeles.