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.
