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Officials Debunk Conservative Study on Registered Alexandria Voters

By James Cullum

Mayor Justin Wilson says that a study by a conservative activist group alleging that 105% of the city’s voting population is registered to vote is “BS”.

Wilson wrote that a Judicial Watch study incorrectly calculated U.S. Census data from the American Community Survey (ACS) when it listed the city’s citizen voting age population at 105%, with 109,889 total registered voters and a total of 104,975 eligible voters. The study was picked up by Republican gubernatorial candidate State Sen. Amanda Chase, who said on social media that there needs to be “absolute integrity in our state electoral system.”

“Reports of deceased people, cats, dogs, voters voting multiple times, ghost votes etc are being reported across the Commonwealth and our great country and it must be rooted out,” Chase wrote on Facebook.

The actual ACS totals show that the city’s population is 159,428, and that there are 130,253 residents old enough to vote. There are also 112,736 total registered voters in Alexandria (104,859 active registered voters and 7,877 inactive registered voters), according to Angie Maniglia Turner, the city’s general registrar and director of elections.

Turner said that Mayor Wilson’s numbers were correct. She said she was not aware of the claims by Chase or Judicial Watch when ALXnow called. Judicial Watch also posted a statement earlier this month by its President Tom Fitton that, “Joe Biden is not president-elect.”

“I’m not aware of cats or dogs voting or any type of incident,” Turner said. “We had three individuals who cast ballots prior to passing away, but that is not abnormal. At the time their ballots were cast they were active registered voters and their votes were counted.”

About the Author

  • Reporter James Cullum has spent nearly 20 years covering Northern Virginia. He began working with ALXnow in 2020, and has covered every story under the sun for the publication, from investigative stories to features and photo galleries. His work includes coverage of national and international situations, as well as from the White House, Capitol, Pentagon, Supreme Court and State Department. He's covered protests and riots throughout the U.S. (including the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol), in addition to earthquake-ridden Haiti, Western Sahara in North Africa and war-torn South Sudan. He has photographed presidents and other world leaders, celebrities and famous musicians, and excels under pressure.