Virginia election official indicted over ‘discrepancies’ in 2020 race

A former county election official in Virginia was indicted Wednesday on corruption charges after her successor found “discrepancies” related to the 2020 election.

Virginia attorney general Jason Miyares brought the charges against Michele White, who served as the Prince William County registrar of voters until she resigned last year. White is facing felony counts of corrupt conduct as an election official and making a false statement as an election official and her misconduct is reported to have occurred between August and December of 2020.

Eric Olsen, who is replacing White, said that he discovered “discrepancies” while going through election-related documents in the registrar’s office. The issue could have affected a small number of votes, but apparently not enough to change the results of any election.

“I was going through some documents in the office and I saw some matters that needed to be reported to the state,” he said.

Miyares’s office has declined to provide specifics about White’s behavior, but interestingly, she stepped down from her post in March 2021 after an emergency board meeting ahead of the Virginia primaries.

Meanwhile, Ohio secretary of state Frank LaRose has referred nearly seventy individuals — including illegal migrants — for potential prosecution over voter fraud concerns. Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s election crimes office has busted about twenty felons for casting a vote in the 2020 election. Left-wing media outlets are complaining about the arrests, insisting that the individuals “didn’t know” that Florida’s new law allowing felons to vote doesn’t apply to those convicted of murder or sex offenses.

These cases thus far are not explosive enough to prove former president Donald Trump’s claim of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. They still raise doubts about the security of elections (given how difficult voter fraud is to identify and prove) and challenge the left-wing notion that voter fraud should not be taken seriously.

Even a small number of votes can change the outcome of local races. In Frederick County, Maryland, the incumbent county council president M.C. Keegan-Ayer lost her primary bid by just three votes to progressive challenger Jazmin di Cola. A recount found that Keegan-Ayer had lost by just one vote, but then di Cola was disqualified after officials determined she lied about living in the district.

Americans seem to be taking local elections more seriously in the past couple of years, making accurate vote counting all the more important. Parents are getting increasingly involved in local school board races; concerns about Virginia schools helped propel Republican Glenn Youngkin to victory, and Governor DeSantis recently celebrated that 19 of his endorsed candidates in local school board races won their elections. Conservatives are also mounting an effort to take out progressive local prosecutors who have declined to lock up violent criminals.