The Virginia House of Delegates is one seat away from a 50/50 Democratic/Republican split.
Ballots sent from abroad may help decide that outcome, but local election officials in Virginia are illegally refusing to count them.
The Republican candidate for House District 28 currently leads the vote count by only 84 votes, but news reports note that the local election board has refused to tally at least 55 ballots from abroad, and more than 1,000 other absentee ballots may not have been counted yet as well.
As Julia Bryan, Chair of Democrats Abroad, stated today: “Our legal system promises that all Americans who successfully cast their ballot should have their votes counted. By not picking up overseas ballots from their post box on Election Day — ballots that arrived before the 7pm deadline on November 7 — the Stafford County electoral board has effectively, and illegally, disenfranchised our military and civilian voters abroad. There is simply no legal reason not to count these votes.”
Democrats Abroad stands firm in condemning voter suppression efforts and will continue fighting to protect all votes from abroad.
UPDATE (Nov 12): The Stafford County electoral board will hold a meeting on Monday, November 13th to decide whether or not they will count the 55 votes from abroad. We will keep this statement updated as news comes in.
Nov 16: Virginia’s 28th House District race remains undecided. Currently the VA House Democratic Caucus has filed suit with the Stafford County electoral board for mishandling their absentee ballots and it appears that hundreds of voters may have voted the wrong ballot. Three recounts are underway in Virginia's state legislature, threatening the Republicans' 51/49 advantage in the House. Many thanks to our Comms team for their help with our outreach this weekend. It led to great connections with grass roots leaders on social media, and good conversations with several media orgs, including DemList, who made the issue their lead story on Monday after we spoke with them and helped put pressure back in the States.