Scott O. Konopasek, Director of the Office of Elections and the General Registrar for Fairfax County, won his bid in court today. His lawyers successfully prevented the judge from ruling on whether his absentee ballot handling was legal. He stands accused of passing out absentee ballots without the required Social Security number verification, in violation of state law. Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Michael F. Devine ordered that Mr. Konopasek’s standing arguments control the case.
Since the case was brought by the Virginia Institute for Public Policy (VIPP), a nonprofit corporation, the compliant will never be evaluated on its merits. The judge ruled that only an individual person could be a plaintiff in such a suit.
J. Christian Adams, head of the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), which is representing VIPP in this case, said he was disappointed in the outcome and that the case was thrown out on a technical issue; who the right plaintiff was. He said the registrar, Mr. Konopasek, can now continue violating state law and that “it wasn’t fair to change the rules in the middle of the game.”
VIPP president and co-founder Lynn Taylor* said this about the ruling, “It is simply not fair that the Fairfax general registrar gets to continue breaking the law.” Mr. Adams spoke to Liberty Nation immediately after the hearing and said he hadn’t yet talked with his client to determine whether an appeal would be brought.
Liberty Nation will keep you updated as this story develops.
*Virginia Institute for Public Policy President Lynn Taylor sits on the board of One Generation Away, LibertyNation.com’s publisher.
