RICHMOND – The Virginia State Board of Elections has certified the 2024 general election results.
According to a news release from the Virginia Department of Elections (VDOE), the five members of the state board voted unanimously to certify the results. Before the state board could vote, the election results were certified by local election boards and checked for accuracy by VDOE.
Before the state certification, a local election certification fight took place. The Waynesboro Board of Elections certified the results of the local general election on Nov. 12 following a hearing in Waynesboro Circuit Court on the legal battle over certification. Judge Paul Dryer ruled that the board, including Chairman Curtis Lilly and Vice Chairman Scott Mares, must certify the election results a day before voting began.
On the ten pages of certified results for each Waynesboro election, Lilly and Mares signed their names and wrote “certified but objected” or “certified but objected” on each page.
Local election boards and the state conducted two risk-mitigation audits before certifying the state results. The state board planned to audit the U.S. Senate race and randomly selected District 1 of the U.S. House of Representatives for the second audit.
“The Senate RLA was conducted on November 20 using the ballot method, with a total of 1,878 ballots selected statewide,” the press release said. “The RLA for House District 1 was conducted on November 21 using the batch comparison method, where 19 randomly selected batches of ballots were chosen, resulting in 137,627 ballots being hand-counted during the audit. The 10 percent risk limit was met with successfully completed both audits in the first round of voting.”
Waynesboard Board of Elections member Sharon Van Name said the audit “couldn’t have been easier” as they only had to cast one vote on Nov. 20.
Waynesboro Board of Elections Secretary Sharon Van Name stamps one of ten pages of certified election results.
A full report on the audits is expected in January.
Complete results, including breakdowns for local results, are available on the Virginia Department of Elections website.
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Lyra Bordelon (she/her) is a public transparency and equity reporter at The News Leader. Do you have a story tip or feedback? It is welcome via email to lbordelon@gannett.com. Subscribe to newsleader.com.
This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Virginia certifies general election results
