The Office of the Attorney General is investigating allegations from the Richmond City Republican Committee (RCRC) that two Democrats from the Richmond Electoral Board opened election result envelopes without a Republican observer present, according to ABC8 News.
“Electoral Board members James Nachman and Joyce Smith opened sealed returns of some precincts in the early morning hours of November 4th, without a proper meeting of the Electoral Board and without party observers. Joyce Smith subsequently lied about her participation,” the RCRC alleged in an April statement to the State Board of Elections.
Elizabeth Butler, a member of the RCRC and of the Republican Party of Virginia’s governing body, the State Central Committee, told The Virginia Star that she and RCRC Chair Hayden Fisher first brought their concerns to the State Board in February. The documents the RCRC presented to the State Board of Elections include quotes from precinct officials alleging that Nachman and Smith opened the envelopes of the 115th precinct, claims that Nachman and Smith deny.
“All of these stated allegations are untrue,” Nachman wrote in an April 12 letter to the State Board of Elections. “The allegations in Hayden Fisher’s complaint are not only false, but are primarily based on unreliable double or triple hearsay.”
“Ms. Smith and I did not open the #2 envelope of Precinct 115 on November 4, 2020, or at any other time,” Nachman wrote.
The RCRC documents also allege other irregularities including the circumstances around the decision to terminate then-Registrar Kirk Showalter. In February, Nachman and Smith voted to fire Showalter, with Republican board member Starlet Stevens opposed.
The vote came after Democrats criticized the registrar for issues during the 2020 election including allegedly failing to comply with FOIA requests, and for vote counting issues in the City Council’s 2nd and 8th District races. As the registrar’s office was processing the elections results, the office experienced an outbreak of COVID-19 and was closed, complicating counting procedures. According to Nachman’s letter, Stevens was also ill during that time.
The RCRC also describes a contentious relationship between Nachman and Stevens, including a failure to notify Stevens of a February 2021 Electoral Board meeting where Acting Interim Registrar Jerry Richardson was appointed. However, Nachman’s letter says that the board, including Stevens, unanimously voted to appoint Richardson.
In his letter, Nachman suggested that Stevens and Butler are seeking retribution for the vote to fire Showalter. He questioned why the RCRC waited until February to raise the concerns. Butler told The Virginia Star that they presented their case at the first electoral board meeting after the election, the same meeting where Showalter was fired. Butler said that shows that their case is not retribution for Showalters’ termination.
“We didn’t even know what they were going to do that night,” Butler said.
The State Electoral Board decided to ask the Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney to investigate the allegations.
“On April 20 the State Board reviewed all of that data and decided unanimously to take all of the data that we had prepared, all of what happened, and have it investigated and try to get to the bottom of it because the State Board doesn’t really have any way to sort through what’s true,” Butler told The Virginia Star.
ABC8 reported that Commonwealth’s Attorney Collette McEachin requested the Attorney General Mark Herring’s office to conduct the investigation because the office has more resources.
Butler said she wasn’t sure if any criminal charges could come from the investigation. But she wants Nachman and Smith to be replaced.
“They’ll be replaced by two other Democrats but hopefully two other Democrats that are serious about following the law. And then on a secondary level, the main thing that we’re looking for is that the electoral board will, going forward, follow the law where it pertains to having electoral board meetings with proper notice given and all the members of the electoral board being invited, and party observers present when they’re supposed to be according to the law,” she said.
She said, “Our whole election system relies on these checks and balances between the parties.”
“All of the allegations that are outlined in Mr. Hayden Fisher’s complaint on behalf of the Richmond Republican Committee are unsubstantiated and are false,” Nachman said in his letter. “Ms. Smith and I take our oaths as elected board members very seriously. We don’t do improper or illegal things and we do not lie.”
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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and the Star News Digital Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Virginia Capitol” by Taber Andrew Bain CC BY 2.0
