Virginia AG aims to tackle voter fraud by creating ‘Election Integrity Unit’

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares announced the formation of a new “Election Integrity Unit” aimed at increasing confidence in the state’s elections.

“I pledged during the 2021 campaign to work to increase transparency and strengthen confidence in our state elections. 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,” Miyares, a Republican, said of the move in a press release Friday.

The unit will work with the Virginia Department of Elections and will be made up of more than 20 attorneys, investigators and paralegals from the attorney general’s office, who will work with Virginia’s 133 local electoral boards.

“The purpose of the unit is to provide advice, support, and resources to ensure that Virginia election law continues to be applied in a uniform manner, and increase confidence in our state elections,” the announcement said.

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The move generated immediate controversy, with the Virginia Democratic Party taking to Twitter to accuse the attorney general of “wasting our taxpayer dollars to establish a ‘Trump’s Big Lie Task Force.’”

The state’s Republican Party praised the new unit, calling it a “bold” and “innovative” idea that will “increase transparency in our elections, restore confidence in our democratic process, and better ensure that every vote is counted in accordance with the law.”

The state GOP pointed to the fraud indictment of a former top Prince William County election official related to the 2020 election, saying that prosecuting the official and forming the Election Integrity Unit sends “a strong message to election officials throughout the state to follow the law, because our election process must be held to a high standard.”

“Democrats in the state senate have blocked common-sense election integrity measures like voter ID, underscoring why it is so important that Republicans take back control of the chamber next year,” the party said.