{"id":1637939,"date":"2022-09-09T16:02:43","date_gmt":"2022-09-09T20:02:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1637939"},"modified":"2022-09-09T16:04:57","modified_gmt":"2022-09-09T20:04:57","slug":"virginia-attorney-general-launches-new-task-force-to-uphold-state-election-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/virginia-attorney-general-launches-new-task-force-to-uphold-state-election-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia Attorney General Launches New Task Force To Uphold State Election Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fvirginia-attorney-general-launches-new-task-force-to-uphold-state-election-laws%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1637939&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Virginia Attorney General (AG) Jason Miyares announced on Friday that his office is launching a new Election Integrity Unit to supply \u201cadvice, support, and resources to ensure that Virginia election law continues to be applied in a uniform manner\u201d and to \u201cincrease confidence\u201d in state elections.<\/p>\n<p>According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/oag.state.va.us\/media-center\/news-releases\/2452-september-9-2022-attorney-general-miyares-announces-new-election-integrity-unit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">press release<\/a> from Miyares\u2019s office, the creation of the unit serves to \u201cprovide legal advice to the Department of Elections, investigate and prosecute violations of Virginia election law, work with the election community throughout the year to ensure uniformity and legality in application of election laws, and work with law enforcement to ensure legality and purity in elections.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Comprised of over 20 \u201cattorneys, investigators and paralegals from across the various divisions in [the] Office of the Attorney General,\u201d the unit is planning to work with \u201cthe State Board,\u201d \u201cDepartment of Elections,\u201d and \u201clocal election officials\u201d throughout the 2022 midterm elections \u201cand beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI pledged during the 2021 campaign to work to increase transparency and strengthen confidence in our state elections. It should be easy to vote, and hard to cheat,\u201d Miyares said in a statement. \u201cThe Election Integrity Unit will work to help to restore confidence in our democratic process in the Commonwealth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Under the <a href=\"https:\/\/law.lis.virginia.gov\/vacode\/title24.2\/chapter1\/section24.2-104\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Code of Virginia<\/a>, Miyares is granted broad jurisdiction regarding elections, with the law stating that the attorney general\u201d shall have full authority to do whatever is necessary or appropriate to enforce the election laws or prosecute violations thereof\u201d and \u201cshall exercise the authority granted \u2026 to conduct an investigation, prosecute a violation [and] assure the enforcement of the elections laws.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The announcement of the new task force comes two days after Miyares\u2019s office indicted a former Virginia voter registrar \u201cfor corruption and false statements related to the 2020 election.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/justthenews.com\/politics-policy\/elections\/ex-virginia-election-official-indicted-corruption-charges-related-2020\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">report<\/a> from Just the News, \u201c[e]x-Prince William County voter registrar\u00a0Michele White [has been] charged with two felony counts alleging corrupt conduct as an election official and making a false statement, and one misdemeanor charge of willful neglect of duty by an elected official.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Miyares did not elaborate on what specific actions White took, the announcement from the Virginia Republican said that the unlawful conduct occurred between August and December of 2020. <\/p>\n<p>A statement from Miyares\u2019s office provided to Just the News did, however, reveal that the \u201cdiscrepancies\u201d reported to \u201cthe Commissioner of Elections and State Board of Elections earlier this year\u201d by Prince William Country\u2019s current director of elections\/general registrar, Eric Olsen, are what ultimately led to the launch of the investigation.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Shawn Fleetwood is a Staff Writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-comments mt-30 mt-sm-60\">\n<div class=\"article-comments-container d-flex flex-column align-items-center py-30\">\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"110\" height=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/fdrlst-mark.svg\" class=\"img-fluid mb-20\" alt=\"The Federalist logo eagle mark\" \/>    <\/p>\n<p>Unlock commenting by joining the Federalist Community.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/plans\/pricing\/\" class=\"btn btn-on-white\">Subscribe<\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Virginia Attorney General (AG) Jason Miyares announced on Friday that his office is launching a new Election Integrity Unit to supply \u201cadvice, support, and resources to ensure that Virginia election<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":1637941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1637939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1637939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1637939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1637939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1637941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1637939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1637939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1637939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}