Virginia Republican gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin continues to call for an “audit” of the voting machines in his state, an echo of the Republican push to investigate 2020 election results around the country following former President Donald Trump’s unfounded claims of fraud.
“I think we need to make sure that people trust these voting machines,” Youngkin said at a Monday event hosted by a Richmond civics group, according to a video reviewed by POLITICO. “I grew up in a world where you have an audit every year, in businesses you have an audit. So let's just audit the voting machines, publish it so everybody can see it.”
Virginia’s state elections department has already conducted a post-election audit, running a statewide “risk-limiting audit” for the first time after the last election. The processtests the accuracy of voting machinesand has been increasingly embraced by election security professionals as a safety measure to guarantee accurate vote counts. The Virginia auditconfirmed the 2020 results in the state.
Youngkin’s call for auditing voting machines in Virginia comes amid Republican efforts in other states to launch their own reviews of the 2020 election. His campaign said that he has been clear on where he stands on the 2020 election: He has repeatedly said that he believes President Joe Biden was legitimately elected, including during the Monday event, and called the 2020 results “certifiably fair” in thefinal debate with his opponent, former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe, last week.
Just going to leave this here:
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Glenn Youngkin endorsed Trump for 2024. He says Trump is so much of the reason why he’s running. We don’t want a Trump wannabe as our governor here in Virginia.
Weeks before Virginia’s gubernatorial election, the campaign for Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe is reaching out to an unexpected constituency: Taylor Swift fans.
On Tuesday, the McAulliffe campaign launched a series of Facebook, Instagram, and Google search ads highlighting his opponent Glenn Youngkin’s role in the controversial purchase of Taylor Swift’s master recordings in 2019. The buyout of Swift’s masters has been a point of bitter contention for the singer and her fans and could be an unexpected liability in the upcoming race.
Last year, Youngkin — the Republican nominee for Virginia governor — retired as co-CEO of the private equity firm The Carlyle Group before launching his 2021 gubernatorial bid. At Carlyle, Youngkin worked with the media executive Scooter Braun to acquire Big Machine Label Group, taking control of all of Swift’s master recordings and, for a time, refusing to sell them back to the singer. Several months later, Swift called on Carlyle to intervene in the deal, saying that the acquisition made it more difficult for her to perform her own music and produce her Netflix documentary named after her recordReputation.
In a Tumblr post at the time, Swift wrote that the purchase of her masters put Braun in the position of “controlling a woman who didn’t want to be associated with them. In perpetuity.”
The McAuliffe five-figure ad buy will target voters who like Swift and engage with her content across Facebook and Instagram, according to the campaign. They will also place ads in Google search results for Virginians that search for her name.
Democracy and Health are on the ballot this year and we need to be ready to keep Virginia Blue. Click below to donate and get involved with McAuliffe and his fellow Virginia Democrats campaigns:
