It’s Been One Week …

Friends of mine like to shrug off accusations of being “conspiracy theorists” by saying what they are engaged in is called“pattern recognition.”

Just over a week into Virginia’s 2026 midterm voting, a familiar pattern is emerging.

Based on the statistics carefully collected and curated by the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP.org), we are seeing voter turnout more than double what it was during the midterms of 2022. As of this writing, it is 221,000 vs. 99,000.

Drilling into the state, you find that “conservative areas” like Campbell or Augusta County are turning out 3-to-1 over 2022 and in “liberal areas” like Charlottesville it is almost 3-to-1 (1,787-614).

The mainstream press, as it did in 2024, will report on the “high turnout in the conservative areas” and ask Democratic Party leaders if it concerns them, to which they will reply something trite like, “nothing will be decided until ALL the votes are counted.”

What we learned in 2024 and with the 2025 redistricting vote is that even in these “conservative areas” the high early turnout is from the left.

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That’s not to imply anything unscrupulous, but it has been their concerted effort ever since the 45-day window was created. They vote early so that they can, take your pick:

• Volunteer for the party on Election Day
• Volunteer to get people to the polls
• Volunteer to make phone calls and texts
• Volunteer to go ballot harvesting

Wait, that last one doesn’t sound kosher, does it?

Well, it’s legal in Virginia. In October 2023, then-Attorney General Jason Miyares said in an advisory opinion, “third-party groups or individuals can return ballots on behalf of other people as long as they get voters’ approval to do so.”

I’ve always felt that conflicts with Virginia Code § 24.2-604, which prohibits “electioneering” within a building being used as a polling place and extends a 40-foot perimeter around the entrance to that building.

Here’s why: If the ballot is being “harvested” at someone’s front door, who is to know what “electioneering” is going on? There are no poll watchers or election officials there to make sure the ballot harvester isn’t wearing a candidate’s T-shirt or campaign pin, wink, wink, nudge, nudge …

The idea of our system of democratic government is to vote secretly in public. This way, the community can ensure that no matter what campaigning was done beforehand, when the citizen steps into the voting booth, he or she is free of coercion to vote however he or she wishes.

Can’t prove that with ballot harvesting and unfettered mail-in voting.

Back to the early numbers. The folks at VPAP also break down whether the votes were cast in person or by mail/drop-off ballot.

In Richmond, for example, as of this writing, one-third of the votes cast were not cast in person. Beyond that, of the 1,222 votes not cast in the presence of sworn officers of election, two-thirds came in on one day (Sept. 24, if you are wondering).

I’ve spoken to law enforcement over the years, and they clearly say that there is little that could be done to prove any misdeeds in these scenarios. However, that’s the issue, isn’t it? No one can prove that the voter wasn’t politicked, coerced, or simply had the ballot filled in for him or her, as has happened at senior living facilities when residents were not there to witness voting according to their own consciences.

Which is the American way. Right, ballot harvesters?

If you have not voted yet, go vote, then volunteer.