I am among a group of five Waynesboro voters who have filed a lawsuit requesting that the Waynesboro Circuit Court orders the two Republican members of the local electoral board to certify the Nov. 5 election.
Curt Lilly, the chairman of the Waynesboro Electoral Board, and Scott Mares, the board’s vice chairman, filed their own suit on Oct. 4, demanding the right to be able to conduct a hand count of ballots cast in Waynesboro in the 2024 election.
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In their suit, Lilly and Mares claim that “certifying the 2024 election would be a violation of the Virginia Constitution,” because they can’t “certify that votes have been counted and apportioned correctly by the voting machines,” and they “cannot ensure that the machines do not connect to the Internet, allowing for vote counting algorithm manipulation.”
The countersuit, filed by Advancement Project and Crowell & Moring on behalf of me and four other Waynesboro voters – Ann Criser-Shedd, Greg Fife, Andrea Jackson and Jennifer Lewis – “seeks a declaratory judgment, injunctive relief and a writ of mandamus that would prevent Defendants from following through on their pledge to ignore their oath of office and violate state law by improperly refusing to certify the results of the upcoming elections.”
“My vote is my voice. I shouldn’t have to rely on the whims of election officials to ensure that my vote is counted. They are causing voters to mistrust the system and that could have a lasting impact. Our officials need to follow the law like every other election board,” Criser-Shedd said.
“The chairman and vice chairman should do their job,” said Lewis, a former Democratic nominee for Congress and the Virginia House of Delegates. “Instead, they are purposely misinterpreting what they are charged to do. I cast my vote and have every right to expect that it will be counted on Election Day.”
At issue is the count not only in the 2024 presidential election, which is the obvious focus of this lawsuit, filed by Front Royal-based attorney Thomas F. Ranieri, who Lilly said, in an interview with the News Leader last week, recruited the two Waynesboro Electoral Board members to be parties to the suit “at some political event.”
Also held hostage by the threats from Lilly and Mares to hold up the election results is the status of the Waynesboro City Council elections. Three seats on the five-member City Council are up on Nov. 5, with a slate of center-right and center-left independents squaring off with three Republicans in Ward A, Ward B and for the At-Large seat on the body.
“The current voting procedures in Waynesboro are consistent with the laws of Virginia. Rather than going to the legislature to get these laws changed, Lilly and Mares have taken my voting rights hostage by threatening to refuse to certify if they don’t prevail in their last-minute and frivolous lawsuit,” said Fife, who has already cast his vote in the 2024 election.
“This year’s election is important to me. For the first time in my ward, Ward A, I’ll be able to solely vote for a City Council representative,” said Jackson, a former chair of the Waynesboro Democratic Committee. “I am frustrated that the election officials are not doing what they take an oath to do, which is to make sure the election runs smoothly and every vote counts. Instead, they are distracting us from our local elections by filing nonsensical court cases.”
The danger here is that this particular nonsensical court case has yet to get on the schedule for Waynesboro Circuit Court. Lilly and Mares filed their suit three weeks ago, and we’re two weeks out from Election Day, but without a court hearing, the risk is growing by the day that the case will not be resolved by Nov. 5, but the important date is actually Nov. 15, the deadline set by the Virginia Department of Elections for local electoral boards to certify their local votes.
Lilly and Mares made clear in their suit and in media interviews that they will not vote to certify the local election absent a court order.
It’s fair to assume that Ranieri, the real driver behind the suit, will push his clients to appeal in the event that they lose at the Circuit Court level, which is virtually guaranteed, and absent expedited hearings and dispensation at the Virginia Court of Appeals and Virginia Supreme Court levels, Waynesboro voters could be on the short end of the stick.
“Waynesboro election officials’ refusal to certify the 2024 elections is a direct attack on Viriginians’ right to vote,” said Judith Browne Dianis, executive director of Advancement Project. “Election certification has been a settled principle of American election law since the turn of the century. City officials’ misinterpretation of the law will undermine democracy and could silence Virginia voters if left in place. Voters deserve to feel confident to know that their votes will be counted.”
“Ensuring that every vote is counted and certifying election results is a bedrock of our democracy. Our clients are voters seeking to vindicate the right of every voter in Waynesboro to have their votes counted and certified in accordance with Virginia law and the Virginia Constitution,” said Lyndsay Gorton, counsel at Crowell & Moring.
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Chris Graham
