Judge bans Virginia’s practice of accepting ballots without postmarks after Election Day

A judge in Virginia ordered a permanent ban on accepting ballots without postmarks after Election Day.

In a consent order dated January 13, 2021, signed by Judge William W. Eldridge IV, Presiding Judge of the Frederick County Circuit Court, the Virginia Board of Elections agreed to revise their regulations to bring them into compliance with Virginia law.

The lawsuit was brought by Frederick County Electoral Board member Thomas Reed. According to a statement from the attorney in the case, “This consent decree gives Mr. Reed everything he requested – a permanent ban on accepting ballots without postmarks after Election Day, and is a loss for the Virginia bureaucrats who said ballots could come in without these protections.”

“I am grateful to my constituent, Thomas Reed, for bringing this important litigation to protect the integrity of Virginia’s elections in 2020, and going forward. The 2020 elections, already made more difficult by the emergence of COVID-19 and the governor’s attempts to move local election dates in an illegal manner, was further complicated by dozens of July 1, 2020, changes in election law passed by Democrats in the General Assembly,” penned Delegate Dave LaRock (R-Loudoun) in a press release.

Larock says the Virginia Department of Elections attempts to interpret and regulate in accordance with all these new laws in 2020 caused significant confusion and wasted time and resources of our dedicated registrars and election workers.

“Now we know that at least one of those regulations violated Virginia law. Unconstitutionally enacted legislation passed in September 2020, further disrupted the election and allowed hundreds of thousands of ballots to be cast in a manner that lacked proper chain-of-custody,” said LaRock. All these issues not only undermined the integrity of Virginia’s elections but overwhelmed and abused our hard-working registrars and election workers.”

In addition, the mandatory annual update of the voter rolls throughout the Commonwealth to correct the records of voters who have changed residences was not performed prior to the 2020 General Election due to information not being provided to local registrars by the Department of Elections, LaRock said.

During the current session of the Virginia General Assembly, Democrats are continuing to bring forward legislation that will continue to unnecessarily burden local registrars and undermine election integrity in the Commonwealth, even proposing to amend our Constitution to guarantee that the legislature cannot regulate or prevent voting by “those adjudicated to be mentally incompetent.”

At the same time, legislation attempting to restore integrity, transparency, and accountability to the voting process has been voted down in both the House and Senate Privileges and Elections Committees.

The same day that Judge Eldridge’s order was issued, House Speaker Filler-Corn stripped committee assignments from three delegates, including LaRock and Delegate Mark Cole (R-Spostsylvania), the ranking Republican member of the Privileges and Elections Committee, for sending a letter to Vice President Mike Pence asking Pence to delay the counting of Virginia’s electoral votes until an investigation into election irregularities had been completed.

“I am reaching out to Speaker Filler-Corn today to draw her attention to this court ruling and to reverse her decision to take retribution against me for my good-faith efforts seeking to assure Virginia election outcomes past and future reflect the expressed consent of the governed,” said LaRock.