Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin announced this week that his state would only use paper ballots in the upcoming general election.
“We use 100% paper ballots with a strict chain of custody. We use counting machines, not voting machines, that are tested prior to every election and never connected to the internet,” Youngkin said in a statement announcing that he’d codified his administration’s election security procedures in Executive Order 35. “We do not mass mail ballots. We monitor our drop boxes 24/7.”
Youngkin also said the state would identify voters using DMV data, and other data sources, to update voter rolls daily, “scrubbing the lists to remove those who should not be on it.” The scrubbing would target the deceased, people who had moved out of state, and “non-citizens that have accidentally or maliciously attempted to register,” Youngkin explained.
During an appearance on Fox News Thursday, Youngkin—who was reportedly a potential candidate for Donald Trump’s running mate—insisted that “American elections should be decided by American citizens and Virginia elections should be decided by Viriginians.”
“This executive order is so important because it does make sure that we have clean voter rolls, it makes sure that votes are counted accurately, and it recognizes the fact that elections need to be trusted by voters,” said Youngkin, before diving into criticisms of Kamala Harris.
Ninety-three percent of votes cast in 2020 had a paper record, whether it was a paper ballot, a mail-in ballot, or a slip printed by an electronic voting machine for voters to review before officially casting, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Not only are paper ballots useful for voters who want to verify the accuracy of their ballots, but crucially, paper ballots are integral to post-election audits.
Trump posted about the order on Truth Social Wednesday, apparently thrilled with Youngkin’s efforts to supposedly secure his state’s elections.
“All votes will be on paper ballots and counted safely and fairly, not by machines connected to the internet—A big security risk. We must work hard to make sure the Election is FAIR and SECURE!!! EVERY STATE SHOULD FOLLOW VIRGINIA’S LEAD. We need volunteers to watch the polls—So important,” Trump wrote.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that electronic voting machines used in 2020 were rigged in favor of Joe Biden. Since then he and his allies have continued to spread conspiracies about electronic voting. Fox News was even hit with two lawsuits from electronic voting machine companies Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic for pushing Trump’s claims. Dominion settled with Fox, while the Smartmatic lawsuit has not yet gone to trial.
But despite Trump’s insistence on paper ballots, they don’t automatically guarantee a win for him. In 2020, the use of paper ballots allowed a hand-count of every ballot cast in Georgia, which certified Biden as the winner of that state’s presidential election.
Even that recount did not satisfy Trump’s baseless claims of widespread voter fraud in Georgia, or stop his ultimately failed attempts to have the results overturned—something which he was still complaining about as recently as Thursday. Ultimately, Trump doesn’t actually care about ensuring secure elections—only about winning.
