Fairfax EB Refers Noncitizens on Voter Rolls to AG
Fairfax County Board of Elections adopts new policy to report noncitizens on voter rolls with voting history. Plus: Early voting starts today & updates on DemTech pollbook certification.
In this edition and follow-up from EPEC Team:
—Early Voting Starts today in Virginia
—Fairfax County Election Board Takes Action on Noncitizens Voting
—The New DemTech Pollbook Provider?
Virginia’s 45-Day Voting Stretch Begins
Early voting started today (Sept. 20) in for Virginia’s 2024 Presidential Election, concluding on Nov. 2nd before Nov. 5th — Game Day.
—Find your Early Voting Locations here.
—Citizens can check their registration information here.
—Ready to be a poll watcher? There is still time to get involved.
The Virginia Fair Elections Coalition is one of the leading groups offering extensive training for all aspects of elections: poll watching and election officer reinforcement.
See the VFE home page for all the details. Training for election officers is also offered as a complement to the mandatory training that localities/registrars are required to provide for election officers.
Find out more on the Department of Elections site here.
EPEC Team is increasing its publishing schedule during the voting season. Look for more frequent updates during the seven-week stretch on stats, poll watching, and participation rates.
On the Radar This Week:
The Fairfax County Electoral Board voted this week to send to the Attorney General and Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney a list of noncitizens who were removed from Virginia’s voter rolls by the Dept. of Elections (ELECT).
Some of the removals appear to have a history of voting prior to removal.
Other localities, such as Arlington, have made similar moves. In Virginia, it is a class 6 felony for anyone who is ineligible to vote to register and cast a ballot.
The Fairfax Electoral Board’s “Policy for Referring Individuals who were Removed from the Voter Rolls” says:
“The General Registrar shall refer all individuals who were removed from the voter rolls pursuant to Va. Code § 24.2-427(C), after being identified by ELECT as non-citizens, to the Commonwealth’s Attorney and the Attorney General to determine if they have violated Virginia elections law.”
The policy referenced data from ELECT showing that “between January 2022 and July 2024, 6,303 individuals in Virginia had their voter registrations cancelled based on this information. This includes 985 individuals who were removed in Fairfax County.”
The letter continued:
These individuals were removed from the voter rolls after being identified by the Virginia Department of Elections (ELECT) as non-citizens, in accordance with the procedures of Va. Code § 24.2-427. It appears that the individuals on this list may have violated Virginia elections law.
EPEC Team’s volunteer CTO, Jon Lareau, has recently published updated analysis and research into recent lists of declared noncitizens who appear to have a voting history.
He noted:
Using the data provided by the VA Department of Elections (ELECT), we have identified at least 2,299 unique registrations that were identified as “Declared Non-Citizen” and removed by ELECT from the voter rolls since May of 2023.
Of those 2,299 there were 438 (revised from 453) that also had corresponding records of recent ballots cast at some point in the official Voter History record that we could observe. There were 1,034 (revised from 1,117) associated ballots cast identified since Feb of 2019.
Lareau adds:
An additional 164 non-citizen registrations had at least one (1) vote cast as per Daily Absentee List (DAL) data from ELECT, with a total of 204 ballots identified, however only two of those DAL identified voters and two ballots were not already identified in the VHL.
* The total number of identified non-citizen ballots cast is therefore 1,036 (revised from 1,321) by 440 (revised from 617) registrants when combining unique VHL and DAL identifications.
See his updated analysis here:
Non-citizen registrations with previous voting history (updated Sept. 2024)
The issue has become a flashpoint across many Virginia localities as more noncitizens who have not attested their citizenship have been removed from the rolls. Election groups are raising questions about electoral boards’ duty to enact policies that are within Virginia statutes.
Northern Virginia’s Prince William County, for example, appears to be allowing “driver privilege cards” — which are issued to noncitizens — as an accepted Voter ID when an individual checks in to vote.
The county’s officer election officer training manual “appears to instruct poll workers that people who show ID cards issued ‘only to non-citizens’ may still vote if they fulfill additional requirements, none of which provide evidence of citizenship.”
See full story here. See the manual here.
Expect more questions about this policy as early voting kicks off.
States across the country are grappling with data that show noncitizens are flowing onto voter rolls and in some cases are shown to have a voting history.
Due to the ‘Motor Voter’ program instituted under the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, many states automatically flow registrants on voter rolls from Dept. of Motor Vehicle transactions of issuing driver’s licenses.
The bulk of the noncitizens flowing onto voter rolls appears to be coming from the ‘Motor Voter’ program.
The Fairfax Electoral Board’s new policy adopted at its Sept. 16, 2024 meeting states:
Under Va. Code § 24.2-1019, General Registrars have the authority to report unlawful elections conduct to the Commonwealth’s Attorney. Making this referral does not require “evidence,” but rather a good faith conclusion that unlawful conduct may have occurred. It is not unusual for individuals whose voter registration in Fairfax County was cancelled to later re-register and through the application affirm their citizenship.
But worth noting:
It is possible that some voters who do not respond or re-register were not citizens when they were on the voter rolls and that they voted unlawfully. However, the General Registrar does not have the discretion to share voting history information with outside parties including the Commonwealth’s Attorney and the Attorney General. Per ELECT guidance, only ELECT has the authority to share voting history information with outside parties. GREB Handbook, § 9.1.2.
EPEC Team will keep reporting it out. #
DemTech Now Appears to be Calvacere
EPEC Board Member Chris Rohland and other EPEC Team volunteers have been tracking the curious case of DemTech’s status as a pollbook software provider to more than 90 localities across Virginia that have begun early voting as of today.
EPEC Team reported last week that DemTech had abruptly ended support agreements in early 2024, according to documents acquired under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
The emails confirmed DemTech was changing its support for the product. EPEC raised questions about whether DemTech software was still properly certified or needed to be re-certified as a result of the change in support for the software.
By statute, “Logic & Accuracy” testing on all pollbooks (and tabulator machines as well) was required to be completed by noon the day before voting starts.
EPEC has since procured more FOIA documents that show Delaware-based company Calvacere has moved to “regularise existing product certification” from DemTech to Calvacere, which it claimed does not require any review of the existing software used in the pollbooks that use the DemTech product that had been certified prior to the company changes.
EPEC Team is still reaching out for answers about the certification of the software prior to the start of early voting. Some of our questions:
—Was ELECT informed by DemTech about whether it was a going concern?
—When was ELECT informed by Calvacere it had apparently purchased all of DemTech’s intellectual property and software licensing rights?
—Where in the Electronic Pollbook Certification Standard does it state Vendor B can buy Vendor A's product and automatically maintain certification without any kind of review by ELECT or any independent cyber security lab?
EPEC Team will keep checking on the pollbook software and whether the systems are performing as expected — and as certified.
For now, it’s early voting season in Virginia’s 2024 Presidential Election. We urge citizens to exercise their right to vote as soon as possible. For now, that’s a wrap. #