Election probe targets 'unusual' reports in wake of Virginia redistricting referendum: AFPI
· Fox News
A political advocacy group is launching an investigation into mail-in ballot practices in Virginia after a narrow "Yes" victory on a redistricting referendum raised questions about election procedures.
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Final results in last week's contest showed voters narrowly approved of Democrats’ effort to redraw Virginia’s congressional map for at least the next four years with heavy geographical and population-based preference given to dense, Democratic-majority areas like Richmond-Petersburg, Hampton Roads and the suburbs of Washington, D.C.
While the election is again in the hands of the courts over procedural and ballot-language-related concerns — at both the county and state Supreme Court levels — the America First Policy Institute issued legally binding records requests to several key counties across the commonwealth, from Christiansburg to Ashburn.
"If we don't have secure elections, then we won't have a country," Leigh Ann O’Neill, chief legal affairs officer for AFPI, told Fox News Digital in an interview.
"And so that is a very high priority for us. And we are very invested in making sure that all the proper procedures are always followed in elections. And that's, of course, no different with respect to this referendum in Virginia."
AFPI’s investigation is asking election officials to turn over communications regarding how mail-in and absentee balloting was administered during the election — which had a several-week early-voting window.
Factors the group is interested in include how ballots were stored, guidance given to county officials, how ballots were distributed and accepted and so forth.
O’Neill said AFPI acted upon reports including online where people were pointing out alleged discrepancies and "unusual mail-in ballot counts" from some counties.
Late in the evening, Virginia’s largest county — Fairfax — reported a tranche of votes that helped "Yes" across the finish line. Fox News Digital reached out to Fairfax officials and several other counties targeted by AFPI's probe.
O’Neill said AFPI’s probe isn’t simply focusing on places where allegations exist, but also a sampling of counties across the commonwealth, to ensure "election integrity principles are upheld in all parts of [Virginia] and around the country."
"We're looking for information that will give us peace of mind that all of the proper procedures were in fact followed."
O’Neill stressed objectivity versus any political or issue-based end goal in AFPI’s probe, in hopes it will help illustrate where election integrity stands on a national basis.
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She said AFPI is seeking evidence of uniformity and consistency across Virginia and to assuage any cause for concern among voters.
A second part of AFPI’s probe focuses on allegations of educational impropriety in Fairfax’s school district, where reports surfaced in The Washington Times and elsewhere of teachers trying to ascertain students’ parents’ stance on redistricting and commit what AFPI described as "partisan voter influence."
In a Times column, Fairfax parent Kelly Sadler said her twins who are in different civics classes asked her if she was voting for the redistricting amendment.
When Sadler replied that she wasn’t, she wrote that her sons already understand her politics and therefore was interested in why they would ask her again.
"Turns out, in both of their civics classes that day, taught by two different teachers in Fairfax County Public Schools, they were urged to go home and persuade their parents to vote yes on the measure to make Virginia’s maps "as fair as they can be [to] stop Donald Trump at all costs," Sadler wrote.
"Any time you have reports of teachers basically directing students which way to vote on a given topic, you know that we've moved outside the realm of objective teaching about how the civics process and systems work, and you've moved into advocating for a particular political belief or concept," added O’Neill in her interview.
O’Neill said FCPS Superintendent Michelle Reid should take such reports seriously and conduct her own investigation.
Fox News Digital reached out to FCPS for comment.
O’Neill said a 1978 federal policy called the Pupil Privacy Rights Act requires parents to be given notice before their students are surveyed for sensitive information, including political beliefs.
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"So again, that's an open question. We don't know if that's what happened here. But if so, that would be a very serious concern. And we think that the voters, the taxpayers in Virginia have a right to understand what was going on," she said.
Fox News Digital additionally reached out to Loudoun, Stafford, Montgomery and Spotsylvania County election officials.
Spotsylvania County was the only county to reply by press time, as Director of Elections and General Registrar Kellie Acors defended the exurban county’s practices.
"We understand the importance of public trust in the integrity of our election processes, and we appreciate the interest in mail-in ballot procedures and any concerns raised," Acors told Fox News Digital.
"At this time there has been zero interest or questions on our Vote by Mail process, numbers entered and turnout. We are all finishing completing these numbers [Monday] actually. As ... mentioned, the only question has been the extensive FOIA I received late last week."
AFPI is led by Board Chairman and FOX Business anchor Larry Kudlow and interim president Greg Sindelar, formerly of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and was reportedly co-founded by current USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins.