The former head of a Virginia county election’s office who is facing corruption charges said her prosecution is a politically motivated effort by the state’s Republican leadership to try to justify the creation of a unit to investigate voter fraud in the state.
Michele White, the ex-Prince William County registrar of voters, said in her first comments on the criminal charges against her that the case is an attack on Virginia’s election officials and could have a chilling effect on their ability to do their job.
White said she did nothing “wrong or illegal” in conducting the vote, but she has not yet been told the exact nature of the allegations.
White was indicted last month on two felony counts of corrupt conduct and making a false statement as an election official, as well as a misdemeanor for willful neglect of duty by an elected official. The conduct is alleged to have occurred during the 2020 election season.
White resigned from her job in April 2021, following an emergency meeting of the Prince William County elections board. White said the board asked for her resignation, but did not explain why.
“Now that we have a Republican governor, who is out campaigning for other Republican governors who claim the election was stolen, I feel that my unexplained resignation and the personal agendas of a few aggrieved staff have created an opportunity for the Governor to use me as a way to show a need for the Election integrity Unit,” White wrote in a text message. “It’s just a good show.”
The office of Attorney General Jason Miyares, who is handling the case, denied any political motivations behind the prosecution. Miyares’s office has declined to release any details about the allegations against White. A spokeswoman for Gov. Glenn Youngkin said maintaining confidence in elections in the state is “paramount,” but referred all questions to Miyares.
“The three indictments were issued by a grand jury,” Miyares spokeswoman Victoria LaCivita said in a statement. “It is utterly false to say they are politically motivated.”
Miyares’s office announced the charges against White two days before rolling out an “Election Integrity Unit” dedicated to investigating allegations of voter fraud and other election irregularities in the state. The move was blasted by Democrats and some voting rights experts, who said the state has no widespread election issues and accused Miyares of trying to suppress the vote.
LaCivita said in her statement the announcement of the “Election Integrity Unit,” which will be staffed by 20 attorneys and other officials, was timed to the start of early voting in Virginia not White’s indictment.
“It should be easy to vote, and hard to cheat,” Miyares said in a previous statement about the unit. “The Election Integrity Unit will work to help to restore confidence in our democratic process in the Commonwealth.”
White tied her prosecution to nationwide efforts by Republicans to cast doubt on election outcomes and the integrity of voting systems. She said she has yet to hire an attorney.
“This is an attack against me, other Directors of Election, Electoral Board members and Election Officers who serve the voting public and manage elections in Virginia,” White said in a statement. She added in an interview: “I would take pause if I were an election officer and really think, ‘Do I want to run elections and run the risk of possibly being charged myself?’ ”
White said she was interviewed by state investigators in late July, but declined to discuss what they asked. She said she came away from the meeting with the impression that the investigation had to do with grievances of some employees in her office and she had addressed the issues.
Eric Olsen, the Prince William registrar who succeeded White, said in an interview last month that he triggered the criminal probe in April when he discovered some “discrepancies” while going through some documents in the office and reported them to the state.
Olsen declined to discuss what those discrepancies were citing the ongoing criminal case, but said they potentially affected a small number of votes in the 2020 election. He said the issues did not change the outcome of any race.
Olsen told the Virginia Mercury on Friday he intended to resign as registar after the midterm elections and blamed efforts by local Republicans to undermine his office. Olsen did not immediately respond to an email by The Washington Post on Friday.
The next hearing in White’s case is scheduled for Oct. 21 in Prince William Circuit Court.