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The Fairfax County Office of Elections “requalified” Franconia District school board candidate Marcia C. St. John-Cunning after a new ruling about her campaign Wednesday.
“This decision is justice for the 3,000 residents who already exercised their constitutional right to vote. More than that, it upholds my platform where every student, parent, and FCPS educator in every zip code counts,” St. John-Cunning said in a statement.
Marcia is back on the ballot! Vote for her normally by filling in the bubble next to her PRINTED name! pic.twitter.com/CrDBZIVXhE
— Fairfax Democrats (@FairfaxDems) November 2, 2023
St. John-Cunning was disqualified Oct. 25 — just a few weeks before the Nov. 7 election — by a Fairfax County Circuit Court judge. As first reported by FFXnow, the judge’s order invalidated some of the signatures St. John-Cunning’s campaign had gathered to support her candidacy, because some of the paperwork did not properly list her address. The invalidated signatures put her below the number needed to appear on the ballot.
However, following another court hearing Wednesday, Judge Richard E. Gardiner allowed St. John-Cunning to submit additional signatures that pushed her back over the threshold.
St. John-Cunning’s candidacy had originally been challenged by Virginia’s 8th District Republican Committee, which has endorsed St. John-Cunning’s rival for the seat, Kevin Pinkney, a lawyer and Fairfax County Public Schools parent.
While school board elections in Virginia are technically nonpartisan, candidates are often endorsed by political parties.
St. John-Cunning has been endorsed by the Fairfax County Democratic Committee.
“This should be a wakeup call,” St. John-Cunning said Wednesday after the judge’s ruling. “The amount of money and resources the Republicans put into this school board race illustrates their strategy to reframe the Fairfax County School Board. Their tactics of disenfranchisement and confusion didn’t happen in Tennessee or Georgia. They happened in our backyard.”
Supporters and members of the county’s Democratic committee denounced the judge’s ruling as “unprecedented” and a clear example of “voter disenfranchisement.”
St. John-Cunning has worked in the Fairfax County school system for 24 years and said she is “committed to improving academics, the development of the whole child, to supporting educators, staff, parents and community engagement, and assuring equity and inclusion.”
WTOP’s Jack Moore contributed to this report.
