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Virginia Election Process Explainer and RNC Election Integrity and Field Efforts in Virginia
Important Topline Process Facts about Virginia’s Elections
√ Polls open at 6 am and close at 7 pm.
√ Absentee ballots postmarked by election day and arriving by noon on Friday will be counted. Absentees can also be “cured” for some deficiency by the voter up to noon on the Friday after the election.
√ The state Department of Elections has instructed localities to stop counting absentees at 11 pm on election night. However, localities have been pre-processing ballots for several days and we expect a large percentage of absentee results, including those from early voting, to be released on election night. Localities will count remaining ballots on Wednesday and Thursday or can wait and count the remaining absentee ballots on Friday after the receipt and cure deadlines.
√ Provisional ballots are also counted after election day and will result in some changes to the election night totals.
√ The local canvass begins on Wednesday, 11/3 and will be complete in all localities on or before Tuesday, 11/9. The canvass process may reveal errors (e.g. number transpositions) in the initial precinct returns that result in changes to the election results.
√ The State Board of Elections will certify the election on Monday, 11/15 and a recount request is due within 10 days from then. Virginia state courts will set the date(s) for any recounts.
√ There are no automatic recounts in Virginia. The losing candidate may request a recount if the margin between the two candidates is within one percent (1%). The losing candidate must pay for the recount if the margin is outside of .5%, otherwise the state/localities pay.
√ A recount is relatively limited in Virginia. It is mostly done by machine with hand counting of ballots that are unscannable, have write-in votes, or have under or overvotes.
RNC Integrity Efforts in Virginia
The RNC has been intensely engaged in election integrity operations in states with 2021 elections, especially Virginia. The RNC has full-time staff in Virginia dedicated solely to election integrity efforts, including recruiting, training, and deploying thousands of volunteers, lawyers, and staff for poll watching and other election oversight efforts. The RNC has a cadre of experienced Virginia experts and attorneys engaged to ensure the election is administered properly and in accordance with Virginia law. Our efforts are comprehensive and involve political, legal, data, and communications facets.
√ The RNC has eleven staff members in Virginia focused on integrity operations, including poll watcher recruitment, training, and shifting.
√ The RNC shifted over 3,413 poll watching shifts in the early voting period alone.
√ The RNC has over 90% of election day shifts already filled, with that number increasing as we recruit additional poll watchers.
√ Working with the Youngkin Campaign, Republican National Lawyers Association, and other groups, we have engaged an estimated 500 attorneys who will be involved with our integrity efforts in Virginia. These lawyers will be in key localities such as Fairfax and Loudoun counties and at central absentee counting precincts. Lawyers will also be monitoring the canvass process in the days following the election.
√ We have additional capacity to significantly ramp up lawyer engagement in the days following the election and will also assist down ballot campaigns in close races.
√ The RNC has funded a War Room which will serve as the central command center for election day decision-making and to triage incident reports submitted by poll watchers and attorneys in the field. The War Room is led by experienced Virginia election law attorneys and will be functional in the days after the election until the results are certain.
√ The RNC has engaged voting systems and Virginia election administration experts to triage any equipment malfunctions or irregularities.
√ The Youngkin Campaign has the capability to litigate in all regions of the state on election day and after, especially in key localities where there have been problems historically. We will litigate when necessary and in any potential recounts or post-election legal proceedings.
√ The RNC is also supporting two lawsuits in Virginia seeking to ensure transparency and obtain important records from election officials.
The RNC also has staff and attorneys deployed in other states with key elections on Tuesday, including New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
Individuals can find other relevant information at EDO.Virginia.GOP. They can report incidents via email at [email protected], by phone at 804-292-2014, or by text message at 804-292-2014.
RNC Field Efforts in Virginia
The RNC has been building field operations in states with targeted elections in 2021, as well as 2022. For the 2021 elections, Virginia has received the most support for building out an expansive field team to elect Republicans up and down the ballot. Through the guidance and support of the RNC, the Virginia field team has been able to break voter contact records in the state by targeting voters in key areas to ensure Republican victories this November.
√ The Virginia Victory Team consists of over 100 staffers dedicated to voter turnout operations, including volunteer recruitment, training, canvassing, and phone efforts.
√ The team in Virginia has knocked on more than 3 million doors and made over 4.2 million phone calls, for a record-breaking total of nearly 7.5 million voter contacts!
√ Since the Republican primary, the Virginia Victory Team has held over 800 trainings and engaged over 16,000 volunteers across the Commonwealth, activating them in voter contact and election integrity efforts.
√ Working with RNC Data, 72 House of Delegate campaigns have converted from i360 to RNC Data. The Virginia team has spent a significant amount of time and resources to support Republicans running at all levels across the state, from School Board to House of Delegates.
√ The field team has organized more than 12 deployments with organizations such as Young Republicans and College Republicans. Over 250 volunteers have traveled to Virginia from states including Alabama, Delaware, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.
√ Utilizing RNC Data, the Virginia field team has been targeting low-turnout, and low- propensity voters through voter contact efforts. Since the start of early voting in Virginia, the field team and RNC Data have been updating the universe of targeted voters daily to remove anyone who has voted. By utilizing dynamic scripting, the team has been able to specifically message voters at the door or on the phone based on their voting method.
√ The RNC and Virginia field team have been instrumental in the planning and production of events around the state, all culminating in a ten-day, fifty-stop bus tour with crowd sizes as large as 4,000 attendees! The team has utilized these events to not only further their volunteer recruitment and supplement data, but also to create opportunities for our RNC Communications to showcase the difference in enthusiasm between Youngkin and McAuliffe.
The RNC also has field operations and staff in other states with key elections on Tuesday, including New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
In 2021, the RNC has surpassed more than 12,500,000 million voter contacts and activated more than 43,000 volunteers nationwide.
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