The dispute about the new rule applied to absentee ballot applications in the middle of this primary season’s absentee balloting period has now landed in court.[read_more]
According to Frederickburg’s Free Lance Star, on Wednesday candidate for House District 28 Susan Stimpson will ask a court to block an absentee ballot application process that she charges gives her opponent, Speaker of the House of Delegates Bill Howell, an unfair advantage. We previously wrote about this new procedure which was instituted in the middle of a campaign with no notice given to any candidate. Only the Speaker, who requested the change, was aware of it. This new rules does not do any favors for Republicans, as it sets the stage for large scale machine-style vote farming, and opens the door to additional kinds of voter fraud.
According to the Free-Lance Star, the suit is against the State Board of Elections and alleges among other things that the new rule and the circumstances surrounding it constitute violations of the Virginia Administrative Code, the 14th Amendment, and the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.
Susan Stimpson campaign consultant Tim Edson added,
The way Susan sees it, Speaker Howell used his power and influence in Richmond to get a rule change that only he was prepared for…They got their hand caught in the cookie jar.
In a meeting on May 13 the State Board of Elections voted in the middle of an election to change the rules when SBE should have waited until after the absentee ballot period to make this change (if they even have the authority to make the change). No candidates were told except for the state’s most powerful politician, who used it to his advantage. Hence the lawsuit to challenge this procedural change made in the middle of an election.
The primary will be held on June 9th.
More on the story at Fredericksburg.com.
Susan Stimpson’s complaint and petition for an injunction here. H/T to Dave Webster for finding the link.
9 comments
[…] into 100% electronic absentee ballot applications. Howell’s opponent, Susan Stimpson, filed a lawsuit to block implementation of the rule, both for this election and permanently, alleging impropriety […]
anyone have access to current polling? anyone know if any polling is worth anything? (ha)
Here is the complaint. She is asking for an injunction. http://susanstimpson.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Stimpson-Susan-Complaint-1.pdf
Thanks for posting, after reading it through you can even more clearly grasp how over the top these actions were by Speaker Howell and the State Board of Elections.
If you read complaints and believe they’re gospel truth, I’ve got a bridge I’d really like to sell you. (This doesn’t apply to Stimpson’s only.)
We’ll see the truth always comes out in the end.
It is a fairly rare occurrence that such a proportionally small segment of a state’s district voters holds such a dispositional degree of election influence over the economic and political well being of the entire state. The 28th District’s June 9th primary is just such a critical day in Virginia’s future. This primary isn’t about personalities its solely about who we want accountable for the future livelihoods and wellbeing of our children and grandchildren in the Richmond statehouse – crony corporate interests or the elected officials that we and our neighbors send to the capital to do the people’s business. Speaker Howell has had a long career and during those decades he has simply lost his path and his grasp on the sole reason I believe he chose initially to serve so many long years ago. Power and influence have replaced public service and led to unjustifiable transfers of Virginia resident’s household wealth into the largely unaccountable state coffers with little demonstrable return to the hard pressed families of the state. Your vote in the 28th district will be of critical importance to us all to begin to turn this around. Please take the time on June 9th to put us back on the right path.
Thank you Lawrence for that well reasoned, and well said, comment.
The more I see of Susan Stimpson in action to defend our voters from the good-ol-boy-political-hack Bill Howell the more I admire her strength, her courage, her principles and her honesty—-she has all the attributes which Bill Howell lacks. Susan, I do not live in your district but I sure will give you my support! OoooooooRaaaaaaaH !!! Well Done, BZ !!!