Attorney General Jay Jones (D) told FOX5 last week, while explaining his new team of state lawyers: “We know that Donald Trump has tried to mess with elections across this country.”

With two weeks until Election Day, that is the threat Virginia’s top lawyer chose to name. Hold onto that answer. You’ll want it when we get to the letters.

If you missed the news, here it is. On Tuesday, Oct. 13, three weeks before the Nov. 3 midterms, Jones launched a Voter Protection Section inside his office, “a team of dedicated lawyers” led by Ajay Saini.

His office said the section was created to address, among other things, “Donald Trump’s relentless attacks on our democracy”.

Which attacks? Fox News noted the announcement “did not identify specific Trump administration actions”. It also did not say how many lawyers, what it costs, or how a voter files a complaint.

Jones says this is no one-time thing. “This work now has a permanent home,” he said, “and a team focused every day on defending voting rights and enforcing Virginia law.”

Translation: this team of state lawyers is not going anywhere after Nov. 3.

The White House was not impressed. Spokesperson Lauren Bis called it “nothing more than a political stunt”.

What the AG reportedly told election officials to do if the feds show up

Then it got stranger. Last Friday, RedState reported that the Attorney General’s office and the Department of Elections issued a 10-page “election bulletin” that instructs local election officials on how to handle DOJ monitors and federal agents at polling places.

According to RedState, it tells officials they may deny ordinary DOJ monitors access, ask federal agents to leave, call local police, and write down agents’ badge numbers, weapons and vehicles.

We have not seen the document ourselves. We are going by that report and by a post from former 83rd District Del. Tim Anderson (R).

Anderson’s post, in all caps: “VIRGINIA’S ATTORNEY GENERAL IS PREPARING FOR A SHOWDOWN WITH FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT ON ELECTION DAY.”

But read his next lines. He also wrote, as RedState quotes him, that “Federal law enforcement has legitimate authority to enforce federal election laws” and that the bulletin “identifies no specific planned unlawful federal operation in Virginia.”

So here is what we know. Jones built a permanent legal section and, in announcing it, named Donald Trump’s attacks as a reason it exists.

And a reported 10-page bulletin on federal agents at the polls that Anderson calls preparation for a “showdown”, even as he writes that it “identifies no specific planned unlawful federal operation in Virginia.”

Jones warned about Washington. The Governor’s office had already mailed the letters.

Now, the letters. On Oct. 6, we wrote that a family had received a letter from the Governor’s office about restoring the voting rights of a daughter who had already died.

On Oct. 14, we wrote that Jeff Turner’s family had received a letter on Sept. 26 saying his rights were restored. Jeff Turner died more than two years ago.

Same state government. One office names Trump as the threat. Another mails voting-rights letters to the dead.

Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) got the question in Lexington last Thursday. She said restoration “is not the same as being registered to vote.”

She pointed to records kept by the Department of Corrections and State Police, and tied corrections to how quickly families report a death.

She gave no number of letters sent to the dead. Translation: if a dead man got a letter from the Governor’s office, check how fast his family filed the paperwork.

House Minority Leader and 45th District Del. Terry Kilgore (R-Gate City) had a suggestion for Jones’s new unit.

“The top priority for this new division should be finding out how many dead felons have had their rights restored, and how that happened in the first place,” he told Fox News.

Jones’s spokesperson, asked about the letters, declined to comment beyond the original statement. Call it what it is: Jones built his new legal team around Trump. Asked about the letters to the dead, his office won’t say more.

There is a question on your ballot that ties all of this together

Question 3 on the Nov. 3 ballot would change the Virginia Constitution so a person convicted of a felony gets the vote back automatically on release from incarceration.

On paper, the Constitution still says a felony costs you the vote unless the Governor restores it.

In practice, that is already gone for most offenses.

The state’s own voter FAQ now says that unless your felony is one of a few disqualifying offenses, such as murder or manslaughter, you can register after release without applying to the Governor at all.

A federal judge’s ruling in January got the state there. And the Governor’s restoration process that remains is the one that mailed those letters. Keep that in mind.

Spanberger is asking people to vote yes, and she praised Jones for pushing the amendment. At an NAACP dinner in Alexandria on Oct. 2, she said “Our administration has restored the rights of well over a hundred thousand people”.

She also said restoration “should not depend on who the governor is”.

So the Governor whose office mailed voting-rights letters to the dead wants to write it into the Constitution for good: no Governor’s restoration step for people released from incarceration on a felony conviction.

We said NO on Question 3 back on Sept. 2, and nothing in October has made it look better.

Before Nov. 3, there is a deadline this Friday

Here is the one line in all of this we agree with.

The Voting Rights Working Group is 11 legal advocacy groups, including the ACLU, the Brennan Center and the Legal Defense Fund, and it put out a release dated Monday, Oct. 19, after a Thursday media briefing.

In it, Sean Morales-Doyle, senior director of the Brennan Center’s Voting Rights and Elections Program, said: “The way these attacks succeed is if voters stay home this fall.”

He is right about the staying-home part. Elections are decided by who shows up.

Jones’s office has a permanent legal section. RedState reports his office and the Department of Elections issued the bulletin. The Governor is out campaigning for Question 3.

Our side has something simpler: you.

Question 3 is on this ballot. Here is how to show up.

Early voting runs through Saturday, Oct. 31. Friday, Oct. 23 is the regular registration deadline and the last day to request a mail ballot, and same-day registration is available after that.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3, and the polls are open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Our full guide to the ballot, including Question 3, is at that link.

The Brennan Center’s lawyer says the attacks only work if voters stay home. For once, we agree. On November 3, show up.