Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares announced on Friday the creation of an Election Integrity Unit within his office.
The unit is made up of more than 20 attorneys, investigators and paralegals from a number of divisions in the Office of the Attorney General.
Miyares said in a statement that the unit will “administer legal advice to the Department of Elections, investigate and prosecute infractions of Virginia election law, work with the election community during the whole year to establish regularity and legality in the operation of election laws and work with law enforcement to secure legality and purity in elections.”
An email to Miyares’ office seeking more specifics has not yet been returned.
“I pledged during the 2021 campaign to work to increase transparency and strengthen confidence in our state elections. It should be easy to vote, and hard to cheat. The Election Integrity Unit will work to help to restore confidence in our democratic process in the Commonwealth,” he said in a statement.
Miyares’ office in the statement cited Virginia law giving the attorney general the authority to “conduct an investigation, prosecute a violation, assure the enforcement of the elections laws, and report the results of the investigation to the State Board.”
WTOP has asked several Northern Virginia county governments and boards of elections for their reaction to the formation of the unit. So far, representatives of the Fairfax County government and the Arlington County Board of Elections said they hadn’t heard of the unit before the announcement of its creation.
