Earlier today, candidate for the 31st District House of Delegates, Idris O’ Connor, released the following statement regarding the Virginia State Board of Elections failing to grant an extension for candidates to file their paperwork, resulting in several Black candidates, including Dumfries Councilwoman Cydny Neville, to be denied the opportunity to remain on the ballot to participate in this year’s Democratic primary taking place on June 8:

“I call on the Virginia State Board of Elections to give all the candidates who had errors on their paperwork an extension to resubmit their filing paperwork. The board should not deny the voters their constitutional right to pick a candidate to represent them in Richmond. The board has given extensions in the past to candidates who have had numerous errors on their paperwork. Three Black candidates who stepped up to run this year, including: Dumfries Town Council member Cydny Neville, Richmond City Council member Dr. Michael Jones and Matt Rogers of Arlington, each submitted their paperwork on time and received no response from the Board until after the deadline on March 25, 2021.

The Chair of the State Board of Elections, Bob Brinks, told the Roanoke Times last year, “doing that would run counter to my personal belief that, as much as possible, we ought to permit access to the ballot and let the voters decide. The board is between a rock and the hard place. We don’t want to be in the position of picking and choosing winners and losers. That’s the voters’ job.”

Since it is the voter’s job to pick and choose their representatives, the state board of elections should get out of the voters’ way by giving the extension and allow the voters to decide the winners and the losers in the upcoming elections.”