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Virginia Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares just established an election Integrity Unit. This is to ensure that there is compliance with state election law and increase voter confidence, officials announced.
The new unit at the attorney general’s office will also look into violations of state election law and give legal advice to the Department of Elections.
AG Miyares said he is keeping his campaign promise to strengthen transparency and confidence in elections. He thinks that establishing This unit will help to do so.
The unit will be composed of 20 lawyers, investigators, and paralegals from the attorney general’s office.
“It should be easy to vote, and hard to cheat. The Election Integrity Unit will work to help to restore confidence in our democratic process in the Commonwealth,” Miyares said Friday.
An official news release stated:
Virginia has a system of elections that divides authority among 133 local electoral boards and general registrars and the bi-partisan State Board of Elections. The new Election Integrity Unit will work with the State Board, the Department of Elections, and the dedicated, hard-working local election officials in the upcoming election and beyond. The unit is made up of more than 20 attorneys, investigators, and paralegals from across the various divisions of the Office of the Attorney General.
Under Virginia law, the Attorney General has broad original jurisdiction in the area of elections. Specifically, the law states that the Attorney General ”shall have full authority to do whatever is necessary or appropriate to enforce the election laws or prosecute violations thereof. The Attorney General shall exercise the authority granted by this section to conduct an investigation, prosecute a violation [and] assure the enforcement of the elections laws . . . ].”
Texas also has an Election Integrity Unit and Florida just recently arrested 20 people in connection to voter fraud.
They arrested 20 ex-felons in Florida for voter fraud tied to the 2020 election. The investigation was led by the Office of Election Crimes and Security. The office was created during the 2022 legislative session to focus on election fraud investigations and prosecutions.
This partial investigation was focused on felons who illegally voted in 2020 by either riot properly applying to have their voting rights restored or were not able to vote because of the severity of their crimes.
DeSantis said those who were arrested were convicted of crimes like murder and sexual assault.
“This is just the first step. There are many more in the pipeline,” DeSantis said. “We are not just going to turn a blind eye to this. The days of that happening in Florida are over.”
Overall, many states are taking election integrity and election fraud more seriously after the 2020 election and in anticipation of the midterm elections, this November.
