Not one but two investigative bodies soon could be involved in determining if any non-citizens voted in recent Arlington elections and, if so, whether criminal charges are warranted.
Members of the Arlington Electoral Board voted 3-0 Sept. 10 to forward relevant information on the matter to the office of Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R). That comes after the office of Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti (D) received the same information from election officials several weeks ago.
Dehghani-Tafti’s office has begun investigating the matter, but has declined to meet with Electoral Board members to discuss the state of the investigation, county elections director Gretchen Reinemeyer told Electoral Board members Sept. 10.
Electoral Board members asked Reinemeyer to make another request for a meeting outside public view, but opted against formalizing it with a resolution.
The advocacy group Electoral Process Education Corp. (EPEC) earlier this year released findings suggesting that 57 people who did not hold U.S. citizenship were or had been on the voter rolls in Arlington, with 13 of them casting ballots in a total of 38 elections. Virginia law prohibits non-citizens from voting in any local, state or federal election.
The Arlington figures were part of a larger release of national data from EPEC, and while Reinemeyer on Sept. 10 did not get into specifics (“I cannot comment” based on the ongoing investigation, she said), the fact that information has been turned over to both local and state investigative agencies suggests there is at least the potential that some criminal misconduct may have taken place.
Election Officials Begin Outreach, Starting Focus on Seniors: Arlington’s seasoned citizens are among the first to be getting tutorials from the county’s election staff during the final push to the Nov. 5 election.
Personnel from the elections office have been, and will continue, visiting senior-living facilities as part of their rounds of the community, elections director Gretchen Reinemeyer told Electoral Board members Sept 10.
“We have a busy next couple of months,” she said of outreach efforts.
This year marks the first general election in Arlington in which ranked-choice voting will be used. It will be the manner of conducting the County Board election, while all other races will use the traditional winner-take-all method.
Ranked-choice voting was used in the state-run Democratic primaries for County Board in Arlington both in 2023 and 2024, although turnout for those was modest compared to the expected turnout for the general election.
Elections staff are happy to come to civic-association and organization meetings and other events to discuss the mechanics of the upcoming election, but Reinemeyer asked those seeking a presentation to “let us know as soon as possible” to assist with scheduling.
More Officer-of-Election Applications Approved: Another 76 officers of election were added to the pool of prospective 2024 poll workers by the Arlington Electoral Board on Sept. 10.
Some may work the polls on Election Day (Nov. 5), when approximately 800 of the more than 2,000 officers of election currently approved will be needed.
The terms of office of those approved Sept. 10 will run through Feb. 28, 2025, so barring an unexpected special election, the appointments will apply for the general election only. Those appointed now can be reappointed next February for a full year.
Arlington’s Ballot to Run Nearly Foot and a Half: State election officials have approved the design of Arlington’s ballot for the Nov. 5 election, which will be a whopping 17 inches long.
Local election officials opted for that length rather than go to two sheets of paper.
On the ballot will be races for president, U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, County Board and School Board, along with state constitutional amendments and county bond referendums.
Because Arlington is running its County Board race under the ranked-choice format, more space is required on the ballot to explain how the process works and allow for the ranking of up to three of the four contenders seeking one open seat.
League of Women Voters: Get Mail Ballots In Early: The League of Women Voters of Arlington and Alexandria City is urging those voting by mail this fall to deposit those ballots in the mailbox at least 10 days early.
The suggestion was made during the public-comment period of the Sept. 10 Arlington Electoral Board meeting, and came a month after local election officials confirmed that several hundred ballots in June’s primary elections did not get counted because they arrived after the cut-off date.
Those ballots were delivered by the U.S. Postal Service to the elections office the afternoon of the Friday following the Democratic and Republican primaries. State law requires that election officials have ballots in hand by noon the Friday after the election.
In the wake of that episode, state Sen. Barbara Favola (D-Arlington) told the GazetteLeader she would be amenable to changing state law, allowing ballots to be counted if they arrived by the close of business on the Friday following the election. Because any action would have to be taken up in the 2025 General Assembly session, it would not impact the timeline for the 2024 election.
