The Fairfax County Registrar, Eric Spicer, has allowed a candidate for school board to appear on the ballot although she failed to submit proper petitions with sufficient signatures.
The challenged petitions contain irregularities that according to Virginia law are "Material." They may also indicate petition circulator fraud, which in Virginia law is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Strangely, Registrar Spicer approved St. John-Cunning's petitions and allowed her name to appear on the ballot.
"In 2023 I have worked with over a dozen candidates, assisting with ballot petitions. In my experience, the Fairfax County Office of Elections requires exacting compliance with applicable rules. Candidates routinely had individual signature petitions, as well as entire petition pages, invalidated when the rules were not followed. The Office of Elections will even invalidate signatures or petition pages when compliance is uncertain."
Is a signature valid if it is added to a ballot petition page after the petition page has been notarized? If so, what safeguards against forgery replace the safeguards that otherwise exist, namely, the requirement for a circulator's attestation in front of a notary?
Is having a series of undated signatures at the end of a ballot petition page a sufficient reason to reject those signatures?
Again, why did Registrar Spicer accept obviously invalid petitions, and why has he ignored calls to follow the law? His action in this case raises a serious question about his impartiality and his ability to administer any elections fairly.
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