Republican Party of Virginia

At least 1,400 voters who applied for absentee ballots received two ballots. “We knew the Democrats many last-minute changes to our election law would make our elections less secure, but no one could imagine voters receiving two ballots,” said Rich Anderson, Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia.

Over 400 voters in central Virginia – 300 in Richmond and 100 in Henrico – received two ballots. And in Fairfax County, where over 300,000 voters have already applied for absentee ballots, we already know of 1,000 voters who received two ballots.

Democrats rushed through dramatic changes to the election at the last possible moment, Governor Northam signing a bill to dramatically change absentee voting only 60 days prior to a Presidential election. Our local election officials were forced to deal with setting up drop boxes for no reason other than to facilitate ballot harvesting by Democrats; making arrangements for pre-paid postage on all envelopes; and setting up a process for voters to cure errors in their absentee ballots. With all that additional work, it’s no wonder mistakes were made.

Because Governor Northam’s Department of Elections IT systems won’t support proper label printing, local officials are left to their own devices to create and print labels. When printers jammed, additional labels were made. Because Northam’s Department, as usual, provided little or no guidance to local officials, there was no quality check in place.

“I insist that the Department of Elections immediately provide guidance to ensure that no additional voters received two ballots,” said RPV Chairman Rich Anderson. “All it takes is a simple check of the number of voter applications being processed before printing labels; once the envelopes are labelled and ready to go, simply count the envelopes before taking them to the post office and make sure the number is the same.”

Follow the Republican Party of Virginia on Twitter: @VA_GOP.