Not one but two investigative bodies soon could be involved in determining if any non-citizens voted in recent Arlington elections and, if so, whether criminal charges are warranted.
Members of the Arlington Electoral Board voted 3-0 Sept. 10 to forward relevant information on the matter to the office of Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R). That comes after the office of Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti (D) received the same information from election officials several weeks ago.
Dehghani-Tafti’s office has begun investigating the matter, but has declined to meet with Electoral Board members to discuss the state of the investigation, county elections director Gretchen Reinemeyer told Electoral Board members Sept. 10.
Electoral Board members asked Reinemeyer to make another request for a meeting outside public view, but opted against formalizing it with a resolution.
The advocacy group Electoral Process Education Corp. (EPEC) earlier this year released findings suggesting that 57 people who did not hold U.S. citizenship were or had been on the voter rolls in Arlington, with 13 of them casting ballots in a total of 38 elections. Virginia law prohibits non-citizens from voting in any local, state or federal election.
The Arlington figures were part of a larger release of national data from EPEC, and while Reinemeyer on Sept. 10 did not get into specifics (“I cannot comment” based on the ongoing investigation, she said), the fact that information has been turned over to both local and state investigative agencies suggests there is at least the potential that some criminal misconduct may have taken place.
