Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s 35th Executive Order just protected every Virginian citizen’s legal right to have their vote counted, thanks to grassroots activists who for years have advocated for stronger election integrity measures.
In it, Youngkin promised the best voter submission, voter list maintenance, and vote counting measures. And he should, because – by his own administration’s count – almost 80,000 deceased people were removed from voter rolls last year, and over 6,300 non-citizens who were illegally registered to vote.
I may be a proud, partisan Republican. But I’m an even prouder Virginian and American who thinks that partisan elections should be run by non-partisan election processes that guarantee the republican (notice the lower-case R) values of clean elections where only citizens decide our state and country’s futures.
Unfortunately, it’s been shockingly easy to vote in Virginia since 2020, when Democrats in the General Assembly repealed requiring a voter ID when casting a ballot. As it currently stands, an individual could claim another person’s identity at a voting precinct by claiming to have forgotten his ID and then cast a ballot by simply signing an ID confirmation statement. And although the confirmation statement describes significant consequences for illegal voting, the law is unenforceable because election officials have no idea who’s actually signing the form.
And this can happen at a massive scale if a campaign or political groups download and distribute the names of people who have not voted in recent elections, and have others falsely claim their identities when voting. It means that when you show up to do your civic duty, the little old lady across the table is going to say that you already voted – probably for the other candidate!
Democrats in Richmond had the chance to correct this egregious loophole earlier this year. Instead, they blocked a measure that would have reinstated the prior requirement to – brace yourself – prove that you are who you say you are, and that you are voting in the proper district. Maybe they agreed with the patently dishonest – but disturbingly popular – idea that voter ID laws are racist, instead of merely intended to help legal voters complete ballots in the correct district and county.
What this means in simple terms is that our elections are not secure.
I’m a political operative. My job is to know the rule book and use it to win. There are all sorts of creative and guerrilla tactics that political campaign consultants like me use to get our candidates elected. We create pop-up PACs, craft viral digital content, inundate you with text messages, and send direct mail to earn your vote. And then we squeeze all the juice out of the lemon by chasing absentee ballots to gain a few more votes, harvest ballots (yes, it’s legal in Virginia), and target infrequent voters.
This is all done for partisan gain because campaigns have diverse candidates who disagree on important matters of policy and politics. But election officials should be non-partisan referees, securing transparent, legal, and fair elections; and elected officials should ensure that the best “rules” are in place so that events like January 6 never happen again.
No election system is perfect, as last year’s accidental removal of thousands of people from Virginia’s voter rolls makes clear. But a republican form of government should be for the people and by the people, which means that everyone’s vote should be secure, and without a hint of fraud or deception.
That’s what Youngkin is promising: preservation of the integrity of our democratic system. Politics may be partisan, but our election process should remain impartial, transparent, and fair for all.
