A Democratic state delegate who authored a new law on political primaries is asking the Virginia Attorney General’s Office to ensure that the decision by Lynchburg Republicans to hold a firehouse primary ahead of the upcoming city council elections is in compliance with the legislation he designed to protect access to the ballot during a party nomination process.
In a letter to Attorney General Jason Miyares, Del. Dan Helmer, D-Fairfax County, expressed concern that the city’s GOP committee had not made provisions to guarantee that the firehouse primary will not violate the law, which requires political parties to make accommodations for absentee voters to avoid suppressing turnout.
“We have significant concerns that the Lynchburg Republican Party has not made provisions to ensure the full accessibility of its nominating process to the protected persons and comported with the law,” Helmer wrote in the letter. “We ask your office to take affirmative steps to ensure the nominating process in Lynchburg protects access to the ballot and is available to all eligible voters including those who cannot appear in person.”
Firehouse primaries and conventions — those run by a political party instead of the state — are often posited as a method to keep members of other political parties from diluting the vote, and Helmer sees the primary set by Lynchburg Republicans to be a far-right ploy to impact the nomination.
But Veronica Bratton, chair of the Lynchburg Republican City Committee, said in an interview last week that the vote in favor of a firehouse primary at a party meeting on Jan. 22 was nearly unanimous, with only Vice Mayor Chris Faraldi — whose Ward IV seat will be on the ballot this year — voting against it. While logistics are still being determined, the committee will follow the new law to ensure a fair process, Bratton said at the time. Faraldi said he voted against a firehouse primaries because Lynchburg Republicans had not yet figured out how its firehouse primary rules will comply with the new law.
The law, which passed with bipartisan support in 2021 and went into effect on Jan. 1, outlines new procedures party officials must follow when running their own elections. It stipulates that all absentee voters, including those serving in the military overseas, studying in institutions of higher education, temporarily residing outside of the United States, living with a disability, or suffering from a communicable disease, or have been exposed to a communicable disease, be offered an opportunity to participate in the nomination process.
Bratton did not respond to an email seeking comment on Wednesday. Victoria LaCivita, a spokeswoman for Miyares, said that the attorney general’s office has “received Del. Helmer’s letter and [we] are reviewing it.”
Lynchburg Republicans have been embroiled in infighting since the party won a 5-2 majority on the city council in 2022, with Faraldi and Martin Misjuns, a Republican city councilmember and his rival, in different camps among the two Republican factions.
Last year, Faraldi was one of three Republicans on council who joined with two Democrats to censure Misjuns for “disorderly behavior and misconduct.” In response, Misjuns recently criticized Faraldi on Facebook and posted: “2024 is going to be a great year to remove incompetent fraudsters at the ballot box.”
