This story was reported and written by our media partner the Virginia Mercury.
The State Board of Elections officially certified this year’s election on Monday, affirming the results of local, congressional and national contests in the commonwealth.
“The bottom line is that we had safe and fair elections in Virginia this year,” said John O’Bannon, the chair of the board who was appointed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
Monday’s certification solidified Vice President Kamala Harris’ win of Virginia’s 13 electoral college votes, despite her ultimate loss to Donald Trump, whose second term in the White House begins next month.
Other certified elections included local contests around the state along with congressional elections and one of Virginia’s U.S. Senate seats.
Virginia Department of Elections Commissioner Susan Beals also reported that two risk-limiting audits after the elections confirmed the wins of both Democratic U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine and U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Westmoreland.
Risk-limiting audits are when random samples of hand-counted ballots are analyzed. Virginia conducts the audits after elections are complete but before they are certified each year. For anyone curious about more details of the audits, Beals said that a full report will be provided at the board’s January 2025 meeting.
She added that two of Virginia’s upcoming special elections will occur on Jan. 7 of next year — Senate District 32 and House District 26.
This is because Democratic Sen. Suhas Subramanyam was elected to Congress so he will vacate that seat. And, since Del. Kannan Srinivasan won a Democratic primary in hopes to replace Subramanyam in the state senate, he will vacate his House seat.
Meanwhile, a special election has yet to be officially set for Senate District 10, as Sen. John McGuire was elected to Congress but hasn’t formally resigned from his state seat. State law outlines that a special election date must be set within 30 days of a vacancy or notification of it — whichever happens first.
With a 21-19 edge in favor of Democrats, a Republican failing to fill McGuire’s seat would give Democrats a bit more lead in the next legislative session. But Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle, R-Hanover, told The Mercury last week that he expects a special election will occur on Jan. 7.
Virginia’s 2025 legislative session will begin on Jan. 8.
Though Virginia’s electoral board has often drawn public comment, no one offered feedback in Monday’s scarcely-attended meeting.
Citizens in Virginia and elsewhere who denied President Joe Biden’s win over Trump in 2020 have questioned electoral boards nationwide. Meanwhile, recent drama among local electoral boards around the state has sometimes spilled into state electoral board meetings. Multiple Capitol Police officers have been present, as they were on Monday’s calm and procedural meeting.
Republican Party of Virginia chairman Rich Anderson and Democratic Party of Virginia chairwoman Susan Swecker had both attended the certification meeting of 2023’s elections to present as a unified front and shore up trust in elections.
They were not present at this year’s certification, but other members of DPVA were.
Jake Rubenstein, who served as Virginia’s director for Harris’ campaign, said election deniers are “just worried about winning elections for themselves — whether that means complaining if they don’t get the results they want, or saying ‘everything is fine’ when the result is what they wanted.”
He added that DPVA is “incredibly proud” of election officials around the state for carrying out their work.
In a text message, Anderson said the results validated “what we knew all along: that Virginian voters can have confidence that our electoral processes are safe, secure and transparent.”
