Old Dominion News

A national advocate for secure elections has applauded Attorney General Jason Miyares for establishing an election integrity unit to ensure compliance with Virginia voter laws.

“Attorney Miyares’ action in setting up an election integrity unit puts him squarely in the responsible minority of attorneys general and utilizing their position appropriately to make sure elections remain clean, transparent, fair and conducted in accordance with their own state laws,” Ken Cuccinelli, national chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative and former Virginia attorney general, told Old Dominion News.

Miyares, a Republican, made election integrity a key part of this 2021 campaign for office, promising to enforce the state’s election laws. He announced the office's creation on Sept. 9.

“I pledged during the 2021 campaign to work to increase transparency and strengthen confidence in our state elections," Miyares said in a statement announcing the creation of the 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."

The unit of more than 20 attorneys will work under the AG’s office in cooperation with Virginia’s 133 local electoral boards. The new office will also provide legal advice to the Department of Elections.

Democrats were quick to criticize the move. Gianni Snidle, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Virginia, told the Virginia Mercury that Miyares “has fully embraced Trump’s Big Lie and the far-right fringes of the Republican party.”

But just days before the announcement of the new election unit, the AG’s office announced that the former Prince William County registrar of voters, Michele White, had been indicted on three criminal charges of election corruption relating to the 2020 elections. The office did not provide details as to the nature of the charges, instead citing election codes.

In light of the indictment, Cuccinelli congratulated Miyares’ office “for shining a light on election crimes in Virginia, and for holding accountable officials who threaten our election processes and the confidence of American voters.”

“Make no mistake, one of the biggest problems of the 2020 election was state officials not obeying their own laws, leading to millions of disillusioned or disenfranchised voters who aren’t certain their votes will be counted fairly, openly, and equally in elections that are secure and accountable,” he said in a statement.

On the national level, the Heritage Foundation has been keeping a running tab of voter fraud cases; it includes 1,375 proven instances of voter fraud and 1,182 criminal convictions since the 1970s.