FREDERICKSBURG — With Virginia’s General Assembly now in session, the Democrats, who nearly clinched a majority in the House of Delegates, rallied Sunday in Fredericksburg calling for a change to the state’s voter laws.
Joshua Cole, who nearly beat Republican Bob Thomas in a recount election for the 28th District in Fredericksburg and Stafford County, spoke at the rally where organizers called for more funding to audit the State Board of Elections to find out why 86 voters in the 28th district were mistakenly given ballots for the neighboring 88th District.
“I want you to understand that maybe we were fighting right now and maybe we may have lost this battle, and that’s OK because guess what: the war is not over yet. We are still fighting. We are still pushing, and we are still marching, and I want to let you know that I stopped by here in Hurkamp Park in Fredericksburg, Virginia to let you all know, to let the system know, and let the powers be know that we aren’t going anywhere. We are still going to fight. We are still going to knock on your doors. We’re going to e-mail you. We’re going to come visit you in your offices and we’re going to tell you that we are going to keep getting on your everlasting nerves until equality matters until voting rights matters and until everybody’s voice is heard properly,” said Cole.
Thomas beat Cole by 73 votes. Following a recount, a federal court judge was not convinced that Democrats could put forth further evidence to show they could win the seat.
Sunday’s rally held at below freezing temperature was a kickoff event for the year-long Virginia Votes 2018 initiative to draw attention, and push to find out what happened not only in Cole’s race but also Shelley Simonds, a Democrat who thought she had clinched the 94th District seat only to lose in a recount.
“Apparently there were ballots that came in after Election Day that were not counted. And I tried to talk to my lawyers and [said] like there are ballots out there. Isn’t there something we can do to count those ballots since we have a tie? And they said no, the Code of Virginia is very clear. The ballots have to be into the registrar by five o’clock or on Election Day. And I just think that needs to be changed as well,” said Simonds.
Kenny Boddye, of Occoquan, who ran and lost a Primary race in the 51st House District in Prince William County in 2017 said voters in November’s election were disenfranchised.
“So while we last year have seen that the folks that were white sheets have evolved to wearing white polos and carried tiki torches. Voter suppression itself has evolved to be more subtle and more insidious than it’s ever been because instead of poll taxes, and literacy tests. We now have these regressive voter ID laws, and these needing to have an excuse to vote early. These issues are about the very process that makes it so that people that believe that their votes should be counted in the people that need their votes to be heard the most are not,” said Boddye.
Sunday’s rally in Fredericksburg wrapped up with comments from Josh Cole where he said he’ll keep fighting for change in the General Assembly in Richmond. In the meantime, he took a job at the state Capitol as a legislative aide for Democrat Kelly Fowler, a delegate from Virginia Beach. She won the election in November.
