Tension over election integrity erupts in Virginia House of Delegates

[RandySF]

RICHMOND — Partisan tension over election integrity finally erupted in the House of Delegates on Friday after simmering for weeks in the background.

Del. Marcus B. Simon (D-Fairfax) touched it off with a simple but provocative message for Republicans who have raised questions about the security of Virginia’s elections laws: “Please cut it out.”

The impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump was winding down in Washington as he spoke, and Simon reminded other House members of the chaos and bloodshed that wracked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 over false charges that the presidential election was “stolen.”

“Stop pushing these false narratives. We’ve all seen how dangerous they are,” Simon said.

But House Minority Leader Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah), who has condemned the violence at the Capitol but tiptoed carefully around the comments of a handful of his caucus who echo Trump’s unfounded complaints of fraud, seemed to push back.

Citing a recent report in Time magazine claiming that political and corporate interests worked together behind the scenes to control how the election was conducted, Gilbert said “the narratives about a stolen election, I think, have given way to something much different.”

The story presents the alleged effort as being aimed at keeping the election “free and fair, credible and uncorrupted,” but it has been widely cited on the right as evidence of a conspiracy among tech firms, the media and Democrats to control the outcome.




https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/virginia-house-election-integrity/2021/02/12/8f780776-6d66-11eb-9ead-673168d5b874_story.html

[elleng]

1. 'simple but provocative message'

“Please cut it out.”