How Did VA Primary Voters Cast Two Ballots?
Early voting records show voters casting ballots for both presidential candidates in some Virginia localities, raising questions about processes. Plus, election bill updates.
The 2024 Republican and Democrat Presidential primaries are a wrap in Virginia as Electoral Boards finalize tallies — which includes voters who appear to have cast a ballot in both contests.
Electoral Process Education Corp. (EPEC) has (so far) identified 28 individual voter IDs who cast a ballot in both the Republican and Democratic primaries, according to the Daily Absentee List (DAL) record from the Dept. of Elections.
Jon Lareau, who volunteers as Chief Technology Officer for EPEC, writes:
All of the records identified have the same voter ID and voter information appearing in both the Democratic and Republican DAL files as having voted In-Person Early (a.k.a. an "On Machine" ballot).
In addition, 26 of the voters have nearly identical timestamps associated with the duplicated ballots. Two of the records showed differing timestamps.
The number of identified records fall into a handful of localities:
Hanover County had 1 identified record (different timestamps).
Northampton County had 1 identified record (different timestamps).
Bath County had 12 identified records.
Norfolk County had 11 identified records.
Franklin County had 1 identified record.
Harrisonburg City had 1 identified record.
Staunton City had 1 identified record.
As Lareau notes: It is not clear at this point if these records are simply errant due to technology, policy, and/ or procedural issues.
But they do raise significant questions about how voters were able to check in more than once to receive a ballot during the 45-day voting stretch in Virginia.
Lareau has published an update of Election Night Reporting data from Virginia’s primaries that provide more evidence the Republican primary was skewed by a large number of Democratic “crossover” voters during early voting.
His analysis of early voting trends in February showed some 17.52% of Democrat-leaning voters taking Republican ballots.
Could the switching of ballots have led to confusion?
The VA Department of Elections (“ELECT”) is clear about the process:
In a dual primary, officers of election will ask voters if they want to cast their ballot in the Democratic Party Primary or the Republican Party Primary. All qualified voters may vote in either primary, but voters may not vote in both primaries.
The DAL record shows at least 28 individuals appear to have voted in both primaries, which is a Class 6 felony according to Virginia statute. (Section 24.2-1004)
It states:
Any person who intentionally (i) votes more than once in the same election, whether those votes are cast in Virginia or in Virginia and any other state or territory of the United States, (ii) procures, assists, or induces another to vote more than once in the same election, whether those votes are cast in Virginia or in Virginia and any other state or territory of the United States, (iii) votes knowing that he is not qualified to vote where and when the vote is to be given, or (iv) procures, assists, or induces another to vote knowing that such person is not qualified to vote where and when the vote is to be given is guilty of a Class 6 felony.
An Override Problem?
The apparent double-votes won't make a difference in the primary results, which were called on the evening of March 5th (“Super Tuesday”) for former President Donald Trump on the Republican side (See Dept. of Elections results here) and incumbent President Joe Biden, who won the Democrat primary.
(As of last night’s primary results in Georgia, Washington, Mississippi, and Hawaii, the Republican and Democrat tickets are set. It’s Trump vs. Biden in November, following primary elections in June for Senate, House, and local races.)
In the meantime, EPEC is asking how 28 voters were able to slip past the check-in process to cast two ballots. Were smaller localities keeping accurate records of check-ins? Did localities allow over-rides of some check-ins? Or did some poll book software fail to update for the localities in question?
EPEC’s Senior Analyst Rick Naigle reported in February that electronic poll book datasets were missing in a number of localities’ (DAL) data. In others, it was out of date, and delayed by about a week throughout early voting.
(See his analysis here about the delayed reporting of check-ins in smaller localities.)
In most localities, the over-ride feature is only allowed with a special password issued to the precinct’s chief election officer. This is to ensure that “non-routine” check-ins are taking place in consultation with other elections officers. This enables transparency and clear records of elections. In at least one locality, elections officers were able to use the “override” feature without the password for certain situations.
As EPEC’s Lareau noted, it is not clear if these issues are due to tech problems, policy glitches, processes that create loopholes — or a combination of all three.
On a related note, EPEC Team has been looking into reports of accuracy problems with the software in some localities’ poll-books during the primary voting. It raises questions about accountability of the tech providers’ products in secure elections. #
Election Bills Headed to Governor’s Desk
More election bills have landed on Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s desk. EPEC Team is tracking 14 bills related to election management and delving into their potential impact on election data accuracy.
“The General Assembly sent me more than a thousand bills plus backward budgets that need a lot of work,” Gov. Youngkin said in a statement over the weekend.
As we reported Friday, Youngkin vetoed SB 606, a controversial election bill that would have forced Virginia back into the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), as part of an early round of bills.
Another bill, SB 196, would do away with voters’ rights to challenge another voter’s eligibility, which is governed by statute. That bill was sent back. The amendment proposed would reinstate the voter challenge process, which is the goal of the bill.
SB 196 would have removed “provisions allowing general registrars to adjudicate challenges to a voter's registration, reserving such process to the courts,” and would route appeals through Virginia’s Richmond Circuit Court. The impact: it removes the authority of electoral boards to oversee challenges in their localities.
If the Democrat-controlled assembly declines to change the bill, it is likely vetoed.
The list of bills signed so far are here.
Bills Gov. Youngkin has vetoed so far are here with statements.
As Youngkin said of the thousand or so new bills that have been queued up for his review: “We’re going to have a busy 30 days going into the reconvene session.”
Mark April 17th on your bill-tracking calendar for the veto session.
EPEC Team will keep you posted.
Until the next edition, that’s a wrap. #