WAYNESBORO – Waynesboro elections officials are refusing to certify the November election without changes to Virginia election policy in a lawsuit recently filed in Waynesboro Circuit Court
“The Plaintiffs believe that to certify the election under the current legal and administrative regime, therefore, would be a violation of their oaths of office and, absent court intervention, shall refuse to certify the 2024 election,” reads the suit.
The suit was brought by the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Waynesboro County Board of Elections, Curtis Lilly and Scott Mares respectively, against Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections Susan Beals and Chairman of the Board for the State Board of Elections John O’Bannon.
Lilly and Curtis’s reasoning goes like this. Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution of Virginia reads, “Secrecy in casting votes shall be maintained, except as provision may be made for assistance to handicapped voters, but the ballot box or voting machine shall be kept in public view and shall not be opened, nor the ballots canvassed nor the votes counted, in secret.”