Category: Electoral process
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A Rebuttal Regarding Changes in Election Laws and Changes in Turnout
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Putting aside the comparison with Georgia, I want to take issue with James Sherlock’s comparison of turnout in earlier Virginia gubernatorial elections with the turnout after significant recent changes in the Commonwealth’s elections laws. First of all, comparing the 66.5% turnout in the 1989 election, in which Doug Wilder became the first…
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Progressive Dogma Untethered to Results – Voter Laws Edition
by James C. Sherlock The armies of the progressive left are what the great political scientist George Edwards called “Prisoners of Their Premises.” Many persons and institutions are captives, to a greater or lesser degree. Lesser is better in this case. Mistakes flow from the best of intentions. You can learn from them or repeat…
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Virginia Absentee Ballots: Absent from the State?
by Lindsey Zea For election accountability purposes, chain of custody for ballots should be observable and publicly verifiable. So, why are two of the largest counties in Virginia, as well as other localities, planning to expand the chain of custody to include a third-party absentee-ballot processing company from Washington state that was caught red-handed ignoring…
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Intregripedia
by Jim McCarthy Surely, at some point, an accomplished polymath will create Integripedia to provide info-hungry internet users with a comprehensive source on political integrity. Specifically, the compendium should cover the promises and pledges of political leaders as well their foibles and accomplishments and perhaps most memorable statements. For the present, however, we must rely…
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A Knee-jerk Reaction and Changes in the Wind
by Dick Hall-Sizemore There has been a kerfuffle over another one of Governor Youngkin’s appointments. Late last week, the Governor named Susan Beals to be Commissioner of the Department of Elections. In contrast to Chris Piper, whom she will replace and who had never worked on a campaign nor donated to a political candidate, Beals…
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“But, It’s Not a Perfect Bill. I Can’t Support That”
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Once again, the General Assembly has killed legislation that would prohibit politicians from using campaign donations to cover personal expenses. It is easy to express outrage at this almost annual occurrence, but, in doing some background research on the subject, I encountered some details that, on the one hand, provide a fuller…
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COPN’s Regional Monopolies Helped Boost Virginia Hospitals’ Operating Margins to more than 3x National Median in 2020
by James C. Sherlock Virginians have been assured forever by the hospital lobby that the non-profit regional monopolies established and protected by COPN nearly everywhere but Richmond: are benign public servants with a charitable mission; certainly don’t drive up costs; that competition does not matter; that the State Medical Facilities Plan on which COPN is…
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A Compelling Case for Campaign Finance Reform – Virginia Commonwealth’s Attorneys
by James C. Sherlock Remind me why, exactly, Virginia permits massive out-of-state campaign contributions to dominate local races. I can’t hear you. Because we do, an out-of-state organization is by far the biggest donor to Virginia Commonwealth’s Attorneys races in elections of local prosecutors. Justice and Public Safety PAC, based in Washington D.C., utterly dominates support to the…
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A Campaign Finance Reform Lesson – the 2021 Elections for the Virginia House of Delegates
by James C. Sherlock Money in politics matters for a lot of reasons. Most of them are unsupportive of a republican form of government. The majority of the Virginia political class is addicted to unlimited campaign donations, a powerful incumbent protection mechanism. They do not blush when they contend that transparency is all that is…
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An Unmistakeable Odor of Corruption
by James C. Sherlock The data offered by the Virginia Public Access Project in Money in Politics have long left a perception that privileged access to Virginia elected officials is for sale. Perception matches reality. It is for sale. No one denies that: a republican form of government is based on a rough equality of…
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Hands Off My Donations!
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Virginia Senators wasted little time killing off an attempt to limit campaign contributions. On its first day of meetings, the Privileges and Elections Committee took up Senator Chap Petersen’s bill to place a $2o,000 cap on campaign contributions (SB 44). Voting to report the bill were five Democrats: Deeds (Bath), Ebbin (Alexandria),…
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End the Johnnymander!
by Scott Dreyer In March 1812, the Boston Gazette ran a cartoon showing “a new species of monster” — ”the Gerry-mander.” It made fun of a contorted voting district that the Jeffersonian Republicans had drawn up to benefit its candidates. Governor Elbridge Gerry signed off on it, and with the cartoon’s publication, a new word…
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Finally, There Are Redistricting Maps Up for Final Consideration
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The two special masters appointed by the Virginia Supreme Court to assist in redistricting have accomplished in about a month what the Virginia Redistricting Commission (“the Commission”) was unable to do in about nine months: produce single draft maps for the Congressional districts, the Senate districts, and the House of Delegates districts.…
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Election Integrity? Not a Problem Now. We Won.
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Now that the election is over, it is a good time to look at the integrity of the results. Over the last two years, Democratic majorities in the General Assembly eased voter ID requirements, established the longest early election period in the country, and instituted “no excuse” absentee voting. Republicans were alarmed.…
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Donald Trump, Please Butt Out
by James A. Bacon Donald Trump inserted himself into the gubernatorial election today by repeating his endorsement of Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin. Nothing wrong with that. He can endorse whomever he likes. But I draw the line at this: “I am not a believer in the integrity of Virginia’s elections, lots of bad things went…