It was past time for the Virginia Board of Elections to crack down on lax candidates

To hear some candidates tell it, a decision last week by the State Board of Elections is heavy-handed and reeks of political chicanery. The board’s move prevents a few Democratic Party challengers from getting on the primary ballot in contests for the House of Delegates this year.

The three-member board, these candidates claim, won’t provide the usual extension it has allowed previously to people who file late or incomplete reports. Three Black candidates, all facing Democratic incumbents in the primary, are the people most affected. They say the board won’t give them a “do-over” customarily granted to politicos in the past.

Two of the Democratic incumbents benefiting from this ruling are White, and one is Black.

(Five other candidates with paperwork problems — Democrats and Republicans alike — are the only people seeking their party’s nominations in their district, allowing them to be nominated for the November ballot.)

Read more: https://www.virginiamercury.com/2021/04/08/it-was-past-time-for-the-virginia-board-of-elections-to-crack-down-on-lax-candidates/