Franconia SB Candidate St. John-Cunning disqualified

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is so shady. Why didn’t the elections office let her know her petition had errors? People have already voted. What happens to their votes?

There was a filing deadline back in June, by which time candidates for School Board had to file a petition with at least 125 signatures on a proper form.

St. John-Cunning filed a petition where one page on the form wasn't properly filled out. That meant the signatures on that page were invalid and didn't count towards the 125-signature requirement.

Both St. John-Cunning and the elections official became aware of the defect after the filing deadline had passed. There was no way to "cure" or fix that error, but the elections official thought he was doing her a favor by saying it was a harmless error. The local Republicans objected, and the elections officer reiterated his position that it wasn't significant, so they took the matter to court. Now a local judge has said the elections official didn't have any authority in the matter - if she didn't have enough valid signatures by the filing deadline, the only recourse is to disqualify her as a candidate.

It may sound unfair, but this is how courts routinely deal with legal filing requirements. Miss a deadline, use the wrong font on a document, fail to fill out the form correctly, or check the wrong box - and your filing stands to get bounced. But if your sympathetic to St. John-Cunning, the last thing you should be doing is blaming the elections official, because he was trying to give her a break.

No, that election official should absolutely be blamed. They should actually be fired. If you don't have the correct number of verified signers, you don't get on the ballot. This should have been determined months ago. Now, as others have pointed out, many people have already voted.
I'm a Democrat, to be clear. This is not me being happy about this outcome, but this is an extremely basic part of the election process.
I've done this (not in Fairfax). Where I did it, the election officials encouraged you to continue to submit signature pages as you got them, and they'd turn around results to you, so you'd know if any were invalid, and you could keep track of the verified signatures you had. The goal is to have everything confirmed before the deadline, so you don't get an unpleasant surprise after the deadline when it's too late to go get more signatures.

The responsibility to submit the correct number of verified signers in the correct format rested squarely with St. John-Cunning. Whether some election official in another jurisdiction went above and beyond to monitor whether a potential candidate was on track to submit the necessary number of signatures doesn't change that fact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, what happens to all the early votes? They were heavily encouraging people to vote early.

Prior votes for St. John-Cunning will be thrown out, according to a post earlier today by Rachna Sizemore Heizer. I assume she knows what she's talking about and isn't lying in order to get other people to think it's especially important for them to write in St. John-Cunning's name now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Apologies if this is embedded in the School Board threads, but this seems like a big thing:

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/elections/candidatenotice

Evidently 6 signatures on her campaign petition were invalid.

So, it looks like the School Board may be 11-1 after all. The remaining candidate, Pinckney, is GOP-endorsed.

Total BS. The Office of Elections told her she qualified so she stopped collecting signatures. Then a right-wing NRA judge comes in and throws out a page months after her signatures were filed and after THOUSANDS of people have already voted for her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apologies if this is embedded in the School Board threads, but this seems like a big thing:

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/elections/candidatenotice

Evidently 6 signatures on her campaign petition were invalid.

So, it looks like the School Board may be 11-1 after all. The remaining candidate, Pinckney, is GOP-endorsed.

Total BS. The Office of Elections told her she qualified so she stopped collecting signatures. Then a right-wing NRA judge comes in and throws out a page months after her signatures were filed and after THOUSANDS of people have already voted for her.

Something is bs all right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It looks like her opponent is a solid choice - Harvard Law graduate with long history of involvement in FCPS schools and six kids who've attended or are still attending schools in the Edison pyramid.

Yeah, no. Hard pass.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It looks like her opponent is a solid choice - Harvard Law graduate with long history of involvement in FCPS schools and six kids who've attended or are still attending schools in the Edison pyramid.

Nope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apologies if this is embedded in the School Board threads, but this seems like a big thing:

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/elections/candidatenotice

Evidently 6 signatures on her campaign petition were invalid.

So, it looks like the School Board may be 11-1 after all. The remaining candidate, Pinckney, is GOP-endorsed.

Total BS. The Office of Elections told her she qualified so she stopped collecting signatures. Then a right-wing NRA judge comes in and throws out a page months after her signatures were filed and after THOUSANDS of people have already voted for her.

Sounds like the county Democrats in charge of the Office of Elections need to find more competent people. And unless there's other election improprieties you have no idea how many votes for St. John-Cunning will get tossed.

[Anonymous]

Why because the FCPS schoolboard may have 1 powerless ineffective R?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why because the FCPS schoolboard may have 1 powerless ineffective R?

The Ds are afraid of even one R on the School Board who’d have greater access to information and visibility into their behind-the-scenes deal-cutting.

[Anonymous]

This is likely a good thing. If she did the minimum, didn’t ensure she enough valid signatures and addresses on her forms, a lot is to blame on her. Why didn’t do the little extra such as go for 250 valid signatures just in case some are invalidated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apologies if this is embedded in the School Board threads, but this seems like a big thing:

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/elections/candidatenotice

Evidently 6 signatures on her campaign petition were invalid.

So, it looks like the School Board may be 11-1 after all. The remaining candidate, Pinckney, is GOP-endorsed.

Total BS. The Office of Elections told her she qualified so she stopped collecting signatures. Then a right-wing NRA judge comes in and throws out a page months after her signatures were filed and after THOUSANDS of people have already voted for her.

Sounds like the county Democrats in charge of the Office of Elections need to find more competent people. And unless there's other election improprieties you have no idea how many votes for St. John-Cunning will get tossed.

Get your facts right. Dems are not in charge of the office of elections. The Board of Elections is led by Republicans because there is a Republican governor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is likely a good thing. If she did the minimum, didn’t ensure she enough valid signatures and addresses on her forms, a lot is to blame on her. Why didn’t do the little extra such as go for 250 valid signatures just in case some are invalidated.

She stopped collecting signatures because they told her she qualified.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is likely a good thing. If she did the minimum, didn’t ensure she enough valid signatures and addresses on her forms, a lot is to blame on her. Why didn’t do the little extra such as go for 250 valid signatures just in case some are invalidated.

She stopped collecting signatures because they told her she qualified.

Yeah, the bare minimum, 125. If she can’t get this right, what level of incompetence would she bring to the board?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apologies if this is embedded in the School Board threads, but this seems like a big thing:

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/elections/candidatenotice

Evidently 6 signatures on her campaign petition were invalid.

So, it looks like the School Board may be 11-1 after all. The remaining candidate, Pinckney, is GOP-endorsed.

Total BS. The Office of Elections told her she qualified so she stopped collecting signatures. Then a right-wing NRA judge comes in and throws out a page months after her signatures were filed and after THOUSANDS of people have already voted for her.

Sounds like the county Democrats in charge of the Office of Elections need to find more competent people. And unless there's other election improprieties you have no idea how many votes for St. John-Cunning will get tossed.

Get your facts right. Dems are not in charge of the office of elections. The Board of Elections is led by Republicans because there is a Republican governor.

The head of the county office of elections is Kate Hanley, a long-time Democrat, and it was the county board that appointed the registrar who told St. John-Cunning her screw-up was no big deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apologies if this is embedded in the School Board threads, but this seems like a big thing:

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/elections/candidatenotice

Evidently 6 signatures on her campaign petition were invalid.

So, it looks like the School Board may be 11-1 after all. The remaining candidate, Pinckney, is GOP-endorsed.

Total BS. The Office of Elections told her she qualified so she stopped collecting signatures. Then a right-wing NRA judge comes in and throws out a page months after her signatures were filed and after THOUSANDS of people have already voted for her.

Sounds like the county Democrats in charge of the Office of Elections need to find more competent people. And unless there's other election improprieties you have no idea how many votes for St. John-Cunning will get tossed.

Get your facts right. Dems are not in charge of the office of elections. The Board of Elections is led by Republicans because there is a Republican governor.

In Fairfax County? Are you sure about that?