Virginia attorney general drops 2020 election case against ex-election official

The Virginia attorney general has dropped a 2020 election case against the former general registrar of Prince William County, after initially bringing three charges against her.

The office of Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares dropped the final misdemeanor charge in the case against former general registrar of Prince William County Michele White on Wednesday, Courthouse News Service reported.

White, who had abruptly resigned from her position as general registrar of Prince William County in 2021 without explanation, was indicted by a grand jury in September 2022 on two felony counts alleging corrupt conduct as an election official and making a false statement, and one misdemeanor indictment of willful neglect of duty by an election officer.

According to a notice and motion for release of court funds for defense investigation and expert assistance that was filed last March, White’s lawyer stated that the Attorney General’s office alleged “White altered election results within the state reporting system, VERIS, and that her alterations resulted in the false reporting of the election results from Prince William County.” 

Last month, the Virginia attorney general's office dropped the two felony charges against White.

In a motion, the office explained that the two charges were dropped because "a key witness for the prosecution who had been previously interviewed" by the state attorney general's investigators "conveniently and quite surprisingly provided a different version of events from that which he had previously provided to investigators."

Miyares' spokeswoman, Victoria LaCivita, told Just the News on Thursday regarding the dropped case, "A prosecutor’s ethical duty is not only to seek convictions but to pursue justice based upon the facts and evidence available. As we said today in our motion, in preparation for trial we learned that several of the witnesses interviewed unexpectedly changed their statements. This case was heavily dependent upon witness testimony and the inconsistencies in these witness statements forced us to reluctantly withdraw the charges."

White's attorney, Zachary Stafford, told Just the News on Thursday that the dropped case against his client "was a collection of allegations regarding her performance as registrar, and the underlying theme was that Ms. White was bad at her job.

"The most concerning allegation was that she altered election results in VERIS on November 7, 2020 with incorrect numbers for the central absentee precinct," Stafford continued. "That allegation was subsequently disproven by a Commonwealth witness. The least concerning allegation was that she moved her office to a different building, which is obviously not a crime.

"Every aspect of Ms. White’s performance during the 2020 election was scrutinized, and the evidence is clear that Ms. White did not commit any crimes during her tenure as Registrar in Prince William County, and the Attorney General’s office wisely dropped the charges," he concluded.