MANASSAS, Va. (Legal Newsline) - Voter integrity advocates are raising concerns about mail-in ballots being processed in Prince William County.
Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli alleged improprieties in two tweets on Friday, Oct. 28.
“VA election integrity problem in Prince William County,” Cuccinelli said on Twitter. “Gen. Registrar employees are opening mail-ballot envelopes-exposing voters' ballots(!)-& then presenting them to partisan Election Officials & asking them to certify that the exposed ballots aren't spoiled!”
Cuccinelli is currently leading the Election Transparency Institute, based in Arlington.
“This is a fixable problem,” he tweeted. “If confronted. I'm sure this will be discussed further tomorrow (now today/Thursday). Where else in Virginia is this happening?”
Prince William County is the second most populated county in Virginia, after Fairfax, and holds the largest concentration of voters in the state's 7th Congressional District.
The 7th Congressional District, which lies on the outer edge of Washington, D.C. suburbs, is currently represented by incumbent Democrat Abigail Spanberger who was first elected in 2018.
Republican challenger Yesli Vega, a law enforcement officer, would be the first Latino Virginian to serve in Congress. She has the endorsement of Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
Real Clear Politics categorizes the race a toss up.
“All the rest of the counties in the Seventh District are smaller counties so the bulk or the biggest part of the decision-making for that race is in Prince William County,” said Clara Bell Wheeler, a senior fellow with the Virginia Institute for Public Policy. “They are going to have a lot of mail-in ballots.”
Wheeler expressed concern about changes to return envelopes of absentee ballots.
“I don’t understand why,” Wheeler told Legal Newsline. “If it isn’t broken, don't fix it.”
Previously, Prince William County employed a two-envelope system.
“People have been using that system for years so I don’t know why they would choose to switch to this somewhat confusing and thin single ballot, single envelope return process,” said Wheeler, also a retired surgeon and former member of the Virginia State Board of Elections.
When asked what the Republican Party of Virginia will do to address the issue, Chris Marsten, general counsel for the Republican Party of Virginia, declined to comment.
Wheeler advised leaders of both the Democratic and Republican parties of Prince William County along with the electoral board to report to the Registrar's office immediately.
“They should go in there tomorrow and say, ‘We want to come in here and watch from now on because you have not been careful or as careful as you needed to be and you have clearly opened the security envelope containing the ballot, which is against the law,’” she said.
Denny Daugherty, chair of the Prince William County GOP Committee, declined to comment on Cuccinelli’s tweet because of existing and ongoing litigation against the Registrar and Electoral Board in a case that will be heard on Tuesday, Nov. 1.
“It’s a different issue but it would be untimely for me to be making comments on their work,” he said.
That lawsuit was filed in the Prince William County 31st District Circuit Court. Retired judge, Thomas Horn, from Loudon County presides.
“It has to do with the assignment of officers,” Daugherty told Legal Newsline. “Virginia law requires very clearly that a chief and assistant chief in each precinct need to be from different parties and the Registrar has assigned people without regard to that requirement.”
Next week's hearing is on a motion for a temporary restraining order and an order requiring the Registrar to use Republican assistants.
According to the complaint, there are eight cases in which the Prince William County GOP Committee is asking for a person to be replaced because individuals whom the Registrar has assigned as Republicans have allegedly voted as Democrats in prior primary elections.