Roanoke, Virginia – The GOP in both Roanoke County and Lynchburg have claimed that the registrars processed ballots without a Republican observer, something that is required by law.
Processing ballots, the process of feeding the ballots into the machine, without both parties present is against the Virginia code.
However, on Monday evening, a judge ruled that the Lynchburg Registrar made a mistake and was not refusing to comply with her duties.
Christine Gibbons, the Lynchburg Registrar, admitted to processing about 240 ballots on October 12 without a Republican representative present.
A week later, Gibbons send an email to the Lynchburg Republican Party, saying, “there will be no pre-processing Tuesday or Thursday.”
However, regardless of her email, pre-processing took place on Thursday, October 29.
“I understand that she’s saying it was just a mistake in the email that I sent, but that mistake was something that causes the code to be violated,” Eric Harrison, the chairman for the Lynchburg Republican Party, said.
The Lynchburg Electoral board, which oversees the registrar, said that what happened was simply a mistake and one that doesn’t change the outcome of the process.
“Did not cause any harm,” David Neumeyer, a member of the Lynchburg Electoral Board, said. “The party was still represented and it was correct by us as soon as we discovered it.”
In Roanoke County, the lawsuit claims that when the registrar’s office began to process the ballots, the Republican observer was in the building but was not present in the room.
He is saying that the Republican Party was not properly notified when processing began.
However, Electoral Board Chairman, Jeff Krasnow, said that the office is following proper procedure.
He said that he expected more Republican representatives to show up since filing the lawsuits, however, that hasn’t been the case.
Krasnow said that he can’t comment directly on the lawsuit itself but he wants everyone to know that their vote is safe.
“If the ballots get here and there is no deficiency, every single vote will be counted,” Krasnow said.
