Republican Rep. Bob Good of Virginia expresses doubts about the integrity of Virginia’s electoral system. is behind his main opponentan effort reminiscent of the “Stop the Steal” movement.
He has vowed to seek a recount in the race and said there must be a full accounting of “every legal vote.”
Good referred to alleged “fires” in three voting precincts on the day of the primary election and alleged that a county registrar’s office mistakenly started a voting process two hours early in the presence of his opponent’s representative, but without notifying his team.
The Good campaign sent a legal brief on Friday about the vote counting process and Freedom of Information Act requests regarding the fire alarms.
The doubts about the election are the latest chapter in a contentious Republican civil war that unfolded during the campaign, in which former President Trump, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and many House Republicans backed Good’s challenger, former Navy SEAL and state Sen. John McGuire, in what was widely seen as a vendetta. Good, the chairman of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus, had endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president and was one of eight Republicans who voted to remove McCarthy, plunging the House into chaos.
They also exemplify the electoral skepticism among conservatives that has been widespread since Trump and his allies refused to admit that President Biden won the 2020 election fairly.
State and local election officials in Virginia said there were no fires at polling places and indicated that fire alarms that went off at those polling places had minimal to no impact on election operations.
And a local election official dismissed the Good campaign’s concerns about a meeting taking place before the time allotted for canvassing, saying it was standard procedure. The McGuire campaign was present because it had called to ask about the time of the meeting, the official said, while the Good campaign was not. But it is evident that the Good campaign believes proper procedure was not followed.
Good was just over 328 votes behind McGuire on Friday evening, according to Decision Desk Headquarters. McGuire has Victory declared in the race. Good has called for a “fair and accurate count of every legal vote” and has promised go to a recountwhich he can apply for if there is less than one percentage point between the two candidates.
“We will recount the votes. We will conduct a full investigation,” Good said Thursday on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” show, adding that he had “an enormous number of lawyers at his disposal.”
In a post on the social platform XGood said that on Election Day, “fires” disrupted voting in three precincts.
“We had three ‘fires’ in three precincts on Election Day, all requiring a 20-minute evacuation. Albemarle County, Hanover County and Lynchburg City. What are the odds? Can anyone remember even one fire in a precinct on Election Day?” Good said. “The AI puts the odds at 0.0000000318%.”
Election officials and spokespeople for the state of Virginia and its local jurisdictions stressed that no voters were turned away at the three polling places where fire alarms sounded on Election Day.
In Lynchburg, election officials said a polling place on the Liberty University campus had to be evacuated for 15 minutes after a fire alarm went off. They were told the alarm was triggered because cleaning equipment was being used. That location was only accessible to students living on campus, and because it was summer, only six votes were cast at the polling place.
An Albemarle County official said that according to a fire department report, a water-damaged ceiling panel fell and triggered an alarm, prompting election officials to evacuate for 20 minutes.
And in Hanover County, a local official said firefighters determined the alarm was triggered by steam from a water heater, and a state official added that 15 voters waited and cast their ballots when the polls opened 30 minutes later.
The fire alarm problem is not the only concern Good raises.
On Bannon’s show, Good claimed that Albemarle County had failed to properly notify his campaign of an election process that began “two hours early,” and that although a representative of McGuire was present, his own campaign had not been informed.
Bannon compared the situation to the “Stop the Steal” movement of 2020. “I’m worried about canvassing, and people should look at this as a test run for November,” he said. “The 2020 election was stolen, and we will never let another election be stolen.”
Lauren Eddy, Albemarle County’s registrar general and elections director, told local radio stations WINA and The Hill on Friday that Good was referring to a closed session on provisional ballots that began at noon, two hours before a public voting session at 2 p.m. Eddy said it was not her office’s usual practice to notify campaign teams directly about the provisional ballot session, and a representative of the McGuire campaign called her office to inquire about the timing of the session. While ballots were being processed, no votes were counted during that session, she said.
But the Good campaign clearly disagrees with the appropriateness of this meeting. His campaign’s legal counsel sent a letter on Friday — obtained by The Hill — with a litany of questions about the provisional ballots, which were “reviewed in the absence of the campaign observer and outside of the public notice period.”
A state in 2023 Electoral Authority Handbook instructs that on the Friday before the election “the date and time of the meeting and the counting of votes shall be publicly announced.”
Good raises complaints about the election process and McGuire’s campaign team criticizes him for it.
“Instead of accepting his fate and the will of the people, Bob Good has chosen to undermine the integrity of Virginia voters,” Sean Brown, a spokesman for the McGuire campaign, said in a statement. “His antics are now beneath the dignity of a soon-to-be-former elected official. Bob should put Virginia and our country first, let this process play out, and then congratulate John McGuire on a free and fair election victory.”
For example, McGuire attended the “Stop the Steal” rally at the Capitol on January 6, but said he did not go into the building.
Good’s campaign team defends his actions.
“We are committed to ensuring that every legal vote is counted in what remains a very close race that will likely fall into the recount category,” Diana Shores, senior adviser and manager of the Good campaign, said in a statement. “We believe the public should be informed of incidents that occurred both on Election Day and in the election process that followed, and we will continue to educate them about the process.”
