LEESBURG, Va. — It's been more than a year-and-a-half since former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, but election denial has now come to the political battleground of Loudoun County.
On Thursday, about a half-dozen conservative activists showed up at the Loudoun County Electoral Board Thursday to raise allegations of voter fraud and a stolen election. But the former president's supporters were vastly outnumbered at the hearing by Democrats fiercely defending the integrity of the county elections director.
Jonathan Kasperek, wearing a red MAGA hat, shooed off a Democratic activist, standing up and telling him to move on, insisting to the board that a binder he was holding was filled with evidence of election problems.
"I believe the election should be voter verified," he said. "I want to see the log files from all of the OVOs from the high-speed scanner. I want to see all the absentee ballots. I want to count all the absentee ballots. All the paper ballots. Just show us how it's done. Show us the numbers."
Leesburg Mayor Kelly Burk (D) said she's never seen any evidence of voter fraud in 40 years in Loudoun County politics.
"This is crazy, this is truly crazy," Burk said. "I can assure you every vote is counted. Every rule is followed."
Dozens of Democrats and elections workers took to the podium to deny the claims of the critics and stand up for elections director Judith Brown, the second longest-serving county elections leader in the Commonwealth.
"I don't understand when the Republicans win, it's business as usual, pop open the champagne," said one Loudoun voter, Bernard Hill. "And when they lose, somebody stole it."
The electoral board agreed to the public hearing, but only two people spoke out clearly to suggest problems with the count. Neither would agree to detail their allegations to reporters.