WASHINGTON — As the Virginia GOP prepares for its byzantine virtual convention next week, Republicans are witnessing firsthand how unnecessary paperwork requirements could disenfranchise eligible voters. A new NBC story details how the party’s hastily arranged convention and slapdash voter ID requirement is wreaking havoc on the process, and potentially leaving some would-be delegates out all together.
“If some of the most committed partisan activists are running afoul of these arcane voter ID requirements, imagine how that plays out among the wider population,” said Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee President Jessica Post. “What’s worse, once Republicans realized it was an issue, many decided to waive the requirement altogether, or let party leaders collect applications and apply an administrative fix — procedures that they relentlessly criticized when it came to elections last year. Here we have a perfect case study about how unnecessary rules sow chaos and leave people out of the process altogether.”
NBC News: ‘A lot of confusion’: Virginia Republicans stumble over their own voter ID requirement
As Republicans across the country insist more laws are needed to protect election integrity, Virginia Republicans have found themselves in a bit of a voter ID quagmire.
At issue is a decision to quietly allow voters to participate in their complicated primary process even if they left blank parts of the application, including required fields that asked for their state-issued voter ID number and a signature, according to documents and an audio recording of a call obtained exclusively by NBC News.
Republicans in the state say the nominating contest has been a logistical nightmare.
And it comes as the Republican Party has largely embraced President Donald Trump’s baseless rallying cry that rampant fraud cost him the election. He has insisted that every signature on a mailed ballot in Georgia be verified, for instance.
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