RICHMOND, Va. - Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring has filed a brief asking the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to extend the voter registration deadline.
According to Herring's office, he is requesting the deadline be extended by two days through Thursday, October 15 because of Tuesday's registration system outage that lasted several hours, preventing Virginians from registering to vote on the final day before the deadline.
"We need to make up for the time lost today. We have 21 days until the most important election of our lifetimes and I want to make sure every eligible Virginian who wants to vote can," Herring wrote on Twitter.
🚨BREAKING🚨 I've filed a brief asking the Court to extend the voter registration deadline.
— Mark Herring (@MarkHerringVA) October 14, 2020
We need to make up for the time lost today. We have 21 days until the most important election of our lifetimes and I want to make sure every eligible Virginian who wants to vote can. pic.twitter.com/LCqU7IZ5o6
Tuesday, the League of Women Voters of Virginia, Virginia Civic Engagement Table and New Virginia Majority filed a federal lawsuit against the Commonwealth of Virginia, asking the court to grant a 48-hour extension for voter registration and to extend in-person early voting. The lawsuit was filed with representation from Advancement Project National Office and Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
The voting rights groups are also seeking a one-day extension of Virginia’s early voting period because the outage also interfered with early voting. Some people attempting to early vote Tuesday were instead only offered the opportunity to fill out a provisional ballot. The groups suggest that, in order to provide adequate relief for impacted voters, Virginia must implement an additional day of early voting and take affirmative steps to ensure that the provisional ballots that were cast today are counted.
A hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday.