Eight Virginia residents have reported incidents of voter intimidation to the Virginia State Board of Elections. Three of the reports have been confirmed, and the issue is now under investigation by the FBI and the Virginia attorney general, said James Alcorn, policy advisor at the State Board of Elections.
Several residents have reported receiving deceptive phone calls, which "inform voters that their polling place has changed and then gives incorrect information about where their polling place is," Alcorn said.
In one incident, Timothy Daly, a resident of Arlington County since 1998, reported receiving a phone call from an individual claiming to be from the Virginia Elections Commission, an organization which does not exist. The caller stated that Daly was a registered voter in New York and that he would be "charged criminally" if he arrived at the Virginia polls, according to an affidavit received by the Board of Elections.
All complaints received by the Board were forwarded to the FBI, said Jean Jensen, secretary of the Board of Elections, though she added that the breadth and effect of the alleged incidents cannot yet be determined.
"I don't know the scope of this," she said. "I know that voters in southern localities [also] got calls that their polling places had changed, but I don't know how many got those calls."
Though the Virginia State Board of Elections lacks investigatory power, they are collaborating with the Office of the Attorney General and the FBI to address the concerns, according to FBI media representative Dee Rybiski and attorney general spokesperson Tucker Martin.
"At this point we are working with our client, the State Board of Elections, to look at these incidents reported to us, and we will move forward in the appropriate manner," Martin said. He added that this will likely become an issue of whether the incidents fall under federal, state or local jurisdiction.
Adam Justus, Albemarle County Democratic Committee precinct captain for University Hall, said he first heard of allegations of voter intimidation Monday. While State Election Board officials and the FBI have not commented on who may be behind the various acts of intimidation, Justus said he understood that many of the phone calls came from California.
"What they are saying now is that the phone calls are coming from California," he said. "A lot of the people who did get called had caller ID."
Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling said he had only heard anecdotal reports of intimidation.
Voter intimidation is "unacceptable, no matter who does it," Bolling said. "If there are complaints of [intimidation], I am confident that they'll be investigated, if there is any validity to [them], and the people responsible will be held accountable, whether they are Republican or Democrat."
According to Rybiski and Charlottesville Community Relations Manager Lee Catlin, no acts of intimidation have been reported as taking place in Charlottesville.
An attorney sat at the University's University Hall polling station to provide voters with numbers to call if there were any problems, Justus said.
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