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Dem stronghold sued in VA just weeks from Election Day

Dem stronghold sued in VA just weeks from Election Day


Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe (left) and GOP candidate Glenn Youngkin, pictured during a heated debate, are statistically tied in the Virginia gubernatorial race according to polls. 

Dem stronghold sued in VA just weeks from Election Day

Political observers are paying attention to polls and voter enthusiasm in blue-leaning Virginia, where a race for governor has narrowed and where an election lawsuit has been filed in the Democratic stronghold of Fairfax County.

Voter polling in the state shows Democrat Terry McAuliffe in a statistical tie with Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin. A compilation of four polls show McAuliffe, a former governor and crafty political operative, is 1.8% ahead of the little-known GOP businessman according to RealClearPolitics.com.  

Joe Biden won Virginia 54%-44% over Donald Trump last year after Trump narrowly lost to Hillary Clinton in 2016 49%-44%.

Robert Knight, a columnist for The Washington Times, tells American Family News there is concern the panicking Democrats will try to cheat.

“As soon as they got into power, Democrats loosened election integrity laws in Virginia. That is a concern,” he says. “They brought back same-day registration. They extended early voting to five full weeks before the election. They got rid of the voter ID law. There is no excuse for doing that other than to pave the way for vote fraud.”

Directly related to those concerns, election watchdog Public Interest Legal Foundation has filed a legal complaint and a motion for an injunction against the Fairfax County General Registrar and three members of the Fairfax County Election Board for violating state election law.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Virginia Institute for Public Policy, a non-profit that promotes right-learning public policies.

J. Christian Adams, who leads the Legal Foundation, says Fairfax is the largest county in the state, with a close governor’s race on the line, and where election officials are ignoring a requirement that voters include the last four digits of their Social Security numbers on an absentee ballot application. 

Adams, J. Christian (PILF) Adams

The lawsuit was filed this week after a Virginia resident said she was informed in an email from the chairman of the Fairfax County Election Board that the county had instituted a policy to approve absentee ballot applications without the required Social Security numbers.

Fairfax County could easily tilt the close election to McAuliffe: Voters there chose Biden over Trump 70%-28% out of approximately 588,300 votes that were cast last November.

According to Adams, the lawsuit argues the Virginia Constitution includes an “Anti-suspension Clause” that forbids local-level officials from ignoring or changing state laws approved by the legislature.

That legal-based complaint might sound familiar to many. During last year's election cycle, many Democrat-led counties cited the virus pandemic for loosening, dropping, and outright ignoring state election laws meant to ensure fair elections and accurate ballot counting. 

"I hope that maybe Fairfax County decides to follow the law now that they've been sued,” Adams says. “How about that for a possibility?”