ACLU of Virginia Aug. 21, 2020 - Settlement Allows Mail Ballots Without Witness Signature

Virginia « ACLU of Virginia

ACLU of Virginia
August 21, 2020

FEDERAL COURT APPROVES SETTLEMENT ALLOWING MAIL BALLOTS WITHOUT A WITNESS SIGNATURE FOR THE NOVEMBER 2020 ELECTION

A federal court today approved an agreement allowing mail ballots without a witness signature for the Nov. 3 general election for all Virginia voters who believe they cannot safely comply due to the pandemic.

The action follows a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Virginia on behalf of League of Women Voters of Virginia and several individuals.

The court approved a similar partial settlement in May regarding the witness requirement for the June primary.

“Voting is essential to our democracy and should be safe and easy to do, even in a pandemic. Getting rid of the witness requirement is a simple way to keep absentee voters safe without sacrificing the safety of our election. No one should have to risk their health to vote,” said Eden Heilman, legal director for the ACLU of Virginia.

Over a quarter of Virginians age 18 and over live by themselves, and almost a third of Virginians over 65 years of age — one of the groups most vulnerable to COVID-19 — live alone. And the impact of this requirement will also fall heavily on Virginians with disabilities and Black Virginians, who live alone in larger percentages than the population as a whole and who also are experiencing COVID-19 at disproportionate rates.

“We saw how Virginians and their votes were protected when the state agreed to waive the witness requirement for the primary election, so we are relieved that the same protection will be in place for November. Amidst all the uncertainty that this pandemic brings, it is incumbent upon our election administrators to provide voters with safe access to the ballot and assurance that their voices will be heard.” said Deb Wake, president of the League of Women Voters of Virginia.

“The court’s action preserves the right to vote throughout 2020 for Virginians who cannot risk their health to get a witness signature in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Davin Rosborough, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. “This settlement protects Virginians who wish to vote in this critical election year.”

The lawsuit, League of Women Voters of Virginia v. Virginia State Board of Elections, was filed in U.S. District Court in Lynchburg, Va.

The order can be found here and case details are available here.

Republican Party of Virginia
September 25, 2020

RPV Asks Court to Hold AG Herring, Department of Elections in Contempt

Richmond, VA – On August 5, Attorney General Mark Herring agreed to eliminate the witness signature requirement in Virginia—an agreement later endorsed by order of a federal judge. For nearly 30 days after the agreement, Herring and his cronies in Richmond never communicated that change to the public. He cared more about his relationship with liberal interest groups than Virginia voters. Now, the Washington Post is reporting that Herring’s actions are sowing voter confusion across the state—even within the liberal groups he was trying to bring into the fold! (“Witnesses aren’t needed for absentee voting in Virginia. But the instructions sometimes say otherwise,” Washington Post, Sept. 23, 2020).

“We have come to expect the Attorney General to ignore his obligation to defend Virginia’s laws and to protect less fortunate voters, but ignoring a court order that he himself requested is a new low,” said Rich Anderson, RPV Chairman. “It’s now quite clear that Herring’s actions in this case were not about protecting Virginians’ voting rights, but scoring points with the ACLU as part of his recently-announced re-election bid.”

Anderson explained, “RPV opposed the many last-minute changes made to our election laws, but now that those changes have been made, every voter deserves accurate information about how to cast a ballot. That’s why we have gone back to court to insist that they live up to their obligation to explain the elimination of the witness signature requirement to voters.”

In League of Women Voters v. State Board of Elections, the case that eliminated the witness signature requirement for absentee ballots, RPV has asked the Judge to order Herring to explain and correct the confusion the Department of Elections caused voters with the poor instructions accompanying absentee ballots.

Rather than defending the Virginia Code’s witness signature requirement, Herring worked directly with the ACLU attorneys representing the League of Women Voters to ask the Court to eliminate the requirement. Despite his role in drafting the court order, Herring failed to comply with its terms on informing voters of the change.

League of Women Voters v. State Board of Elections, is before federal Judge Norman Moon in the Lynchburg Division of the Western District of Virginia, Case No. 6:20-cv-24. RPV’s filing is available here.