The Democratic Party of Virginia and Richmond’s top elections official are working to resolve a legal dispute over the release of a list of voters whose ballots haven’t been processed due to errors.
A DPVA spokesman said the party has received a list of 97 Richmond voters whose ballots were flagged for errors, and is working with Richmond General Registrar J. Kirk Showalter to obtain the most up to date, complete list.
DPVA Chairwoman Susan Swecker on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Showalter, arguing the registrar and her office had violated the state’s public records laws by failing to provide the party with the list of voters.
In court filings, DPVA asked the court to compel the city to release the records, which would allow the party to contact those voters and help them fix their ballots in time for the election. DPVA spokesman Grant Fox said the state party requested such lists from more than 50 other localities without significant issues.
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The case was set for a Wednesday hearing at 2 p.m. before a Richmond circuit court judge; the hearing was delayed as the two parties worked to resolve their differences.
The Richmond Electoral Board briefly discussed the substance of the lawsuit Tuesday night and distributed a list of voters whose ballots had errors.
Jim Nachman, the board’s chairman, said the city’s election office did not intend to “hide” any records or “stonewall” requests for them.
“You’ve got an operation here that’s tremendously ramped. It’s never been done before,” he said of the unprecedented number of absentee ballots Richmond and other localities are processing this election cycle. “People are working really hard, they’re under a lot of stress.”
He said election officials had been keeping a log of the problem ballots but fell behind on maintaining it.
Showalter said little during the discussion about the suit and kept her back turned to Democratic Party officials who were in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting.
Showalter did not respond to a request for comment. Nachman said Tuesday that Showalter, who is an appointee of the board, could not comment on a pending lawsuit.