From AG Mark Herring’s office:
A proposed consent decree has been filed in the lawsuit to extend the voter registration deadline. Under the terms of a proposed consent decree submitted to Judge Gibney tonight, Attorney General Herring agrees that the Commonwealth will:
- Take all action necessary to extend the October 13, 2020 registration deadline until 11:59 pm on Thursday, October 15, 2020
- Take all action necessary to provide notice to the public of the reopening and extension of this deadline
- Provide additional information to the public and to voters attempting to register of alternative methods by which individuals may register to vote, in the event of a system outage during the extension period
The order is proposed to the Court and will not be final and effective until entered by a court.
Attorney General Herring is dedicated to ensuring that Virginia’s voter registration deadline is extended to October 15th and making up for the time that Virginians lost today because of the registration system outage.
ATTORNEY GENERAL HERRING ASKS COURT TO EXTEND VOTER REGISTRATION DEADLINE
~ Herring working to secure court order that will extend the voter registration deadline ~ |
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| RICHMOND (October 13, 2020) – Attorney General Mark R. Herring has asked the Court to extend the deadline for voter registration by two days, through October 15, because of a registration system outage that lasted several hours, preventing Virginians from registering to vote on the final day before the deadline. The Attorney General is working to secure a court order that will extend the deadline in order to protect Virginians’ constitutionally protected right to vote and register to vote. In his response brief, Attorney General Herring says that, “[d]efendants recognize the importance of access to the voting booth and would ask this Court to extend the voter registration deadline to October 15, 2020.”
A hearing is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM in front of Judge John A. Gibney, Jr. in the Eastern District of Virginia.
“I have asked the court to extend the voter registration deadline because it’s so important to make up for the time Virginians lost today and give people an opportunity to register to vote if they have not yet done so,” said Attorney General Herring. “Over the last several months, I have worked hard to reach agreements and take other actions to protect Virginians’ right to vote and this situation is no different. We are 21 days away from the most important election of our lifetimes and I want to make sure that every Virginian who wants to vote has the opportunity to do so.”
In a response to a lawsuit filed by several Virginia voter advocacy organizations, Attorney General Herring filed a response brief saying that he “agree[s] with Plaintiffs that an order from this Court would vindicate the public interests of ensuring access to the voting booth and election integrity.” Attorney General Herring adds that “Defendants recognize that the outage resulted in the inability of certain Virginians who attempted to register to vote to accomplish their registration. Virginia state law does not authorize Defendants to extend the deadline established by the Virginia Code for voter registration.” |
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