Virginia lawmakers assert state elections are safe and secure

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - President Donald Trump is claiming there are vulnerabilities in our election system.

Here in Virginia, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say voting is safe and secure heading into the midterm elections.

“It’s incredibly depressing that we live in a world in which the leader of our country throws around lies, just flat out lies about the election processes,” said State Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, (D) 16th District.

In the commonwealth we use ballot-marking devices and systems.

This allows voters to use an electronic ballot to make their voice heard but it also produces a paper ballot for the record.

“You have to show an ID and if you don’t show an ID you have to sign an affidavit saying you are who you are under threat to a felony,” said State Sen. VanValkenburg.

After an election, the canvass of votes starts.

Election officials in each locality have 10 days to conduct a canvass to verify and consolidate election results.

Then comes certification.

That’s the collecting, recording, reviewing, verifying and certifying the votes from Virginia’s 133 counties and cities.

“Virginia does a nice job of making sure that we’ve got safe, secure elections. At the end of the day though, we don’t know what we don’t know,” said State Sen. Glen Sturtevant, (R) 12th District.

The State Department of Elections is also using funds to increase cyber security training, increase security for election data, and establish more certification standards for voting equipment.

“Virginia has never had a major problem. Of course there are tabulation errors. Of course you have very close elections, but we have excellent procedures for dealing with them,” said Larry Sabato, UVa Center for Politics Executive Director.

President Trump also pushing congress to pass the SAVE America Act which likely won’t happen.

It would require voter ID and proof of citizenship.

“I support common sense election safeguards, like proof of citizenship and actuate voter rolls and voter ID,” said State Sen. Sturtevant.

The State Department of Elections also conducts election audits each year.

They randomly pick a handful of localities to check certain race results.