This coming Saturday, January 15, 2022, the nation will watch the swearing-in of the new Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, a new Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears and a new Attorney General Jason S. Miyares. On Wednesday of this week, the new members of the Virginia House of Delegates will convene – with a Republican majority.
Those of us who care about election integrity believe that the changes in Virginia’s government being installed this week are due in no small part to the grassroots efforts of thousands of Virginians, mobilizing as local election integrity task force members, poll watchers, election officials, and as citizens engaged in being part of the Virginia election process in 2021.
Leftwing activist groups have insinuated themselves into the election systems across the country for more than a decade. In 2021, conservative activists and leaders showed up at the election offices in Virginia. In droves. They became engaged in the election process: asking questions, insisting that laws be followed, documenting and resolving potential irregularities in the voting process in real-time. They were there watching and participating before voting started and then during the entire 45 days of early voting that the Democrats in Virginia had inflicted on the state.
Ensuring transparency in the election process isn’t easy when there is an extended period of early voting. That’s the goal of the left: to be able to conduct elections behind closed doors and outside the framework of the statutory observation guaranteed in every state’s election laws.
This week, in the runup to the Virginia inauguration this Saturday, we declare this Virginia Week in the Election Integrity Network. We are focusing on the Virginia Model, where everyday patriots took back their election process from the historic leftist control of the system – and kept the statutory system from being changed or ignored at the last moment.
My podcast “Who’s Counting?” will feature this week Christine Brim, who chairs the Election Integrity Task Force for Fairfax County, VA, Shelley Oberlander, who chairs the Loudon County Election Integrity Task Force, and Ned Jones, who served as the Political Director of the Virginia Project during 2021. Each of them will discuss what they did to reclaim the integrity of the election in their counties and through their organizations.
Christine, Ned, and Shelley are wonderful examples of what citizens can do to become engaged at the local level and why it matters.
Please listen to and share these episodes: learn what you can do to protect the election systems where you live.
If all of us will follow the examples set by Ned, Christine, and Shelley, and many others who formed the Virginia Fair Elections Coalition, we can and we will keep the left from manipulating the election systems in ways none of us imagined could happen before 2020.
Follow these great citizen leaders in Virginia who, because of their tireless work, Virginia may be able to start the process of unwinding the crazy election laws put in place by the former Democratic legislature. Learn from them how to build a permanent election integrity infrastructure in your states, as these great citizens demonstrated in Virginia in 2021. And you should know that all of them are continuing their work for election integrity in 2022.
Thanks to all of the great patriots who participated in the election process in Virginia in 2021. It is a shining example for the rest of the nation.
Join the Election Integrity Network in honoring these outstanding Virginians! Happy Virginia Week!