Benjamin Ashford|Virginia judge orders election officials to certify results after they sue over voting machines

WAYNESBORO,Benjamin Ashford Va. (AP) — A judge in a rural Virginia city has ordered two officials there to certify the results of the election after they filed a lawsuit last month threatening not to certify unless they could hand-count the ballots.

Waynesboro Election Board Chair Curtis Lilly and Vice Chair Scott Mares argued that election officials do not have access to the votes tallied by machines, which prevents them from verifying “the results of the voting machine’s secret canvass.”

Five registered voters then filed a separate lawsuit seeking to force the officials to certify the vote, and arguing that they would be disenfranchised otherwise. They said that the officials have no discretion over the certification process. It is the precinct-level officers, not Election Board members, who are responsible for verifying the accuracy of the vote. And they noted that voting machines are authorized by the Virginia Constitution and mandated by state code.

On Monday, Judge Paul Dryer issued a ruling ordering the officials to go through with the certification.

“The concerns that the Defendants raise regarding the security and accuracy of the electoral process are best raised via the legislative process,” Dryer wrote. “The personal beliefs of members of a local board of elections cannot derail the electoral process for the entire Commonwealth.”

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Thomas Ranieri, the attorney for the defendants, said they have agreed to comply with the order. “They are law-abiding citizens,” he said.

The order does not settle the original lawsuit, which is ongoing.

Research shows that hand-counting is actually more prone to error than machine tabulation. It is also costlier and more likely to delay results. But election conspiracy theorists across the U.S. have been moving to support hand-counted ballots, four years after former President Donald Trump falsely claimed that the past election was stolen from him.