Glenn Youngkin’s underage son was turned away from a voting precinct on Election Day, top county election official says

By Dan Merica and Ryan Nobles, CNN

Glenn Youngkin‘s 17-year-old son was turned away from a voting precinct on Election Day, the top election official for Fairfax County, Virginia told CNN on Friday.

Elections officials were “made aware” on Friday morning of “concerns that a 17 yo male attempted on two occasions to vote on election day,” Scott O. Konopasek, the Fairfax County General Registrar, said in a statement.

“The young man presented identification but was ineligible to be registered due to his age and was not permitted to vote,” Konopasek added.

Youngkin’s son did not vote and “made no false statements” or “disrupt voting,” Konopasek said. He was “given a registration form and encouraged to register for future elections,” the election official added.

“Based upon information available to me now, it appears that he committed no election offense as defined in Chapter 10 of the Elections Code,” Konopasek concluded. The statement named Youngkin’s son, but CNN chose not to identify him because he is a minor and was found not to have committed a crime.

Youngkin, a Republican, defeated former Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Tuesday night, delivering a significant blow to Democrats, and signaling that the Republican Party heads into the 2022 midterms in a strong position.

The incident was reported in notes from Jennifer Canty, who was identified as the chief of the precinct at the Great Falls Library in Great Falls, Virginia.

Canty wrote in her notes that at 9:30 a.m. on Election Day, a “17 yo voter came in requested ballot” but was “told he had to be 18 yo to vote today.” Canty writes that she offered him a voter registration but “he declined.”

Canty goes on to write that the “same 17 yo voter… came back to request a ballot” around 10:00 a.m. It was here that Canty writes down Youngkin’s name. “Again offered opportunity to register. He declined if he wouldn’t be able to vote today,” she wrote.

The Washington Post, which first broke the story, spoke to the precinct head, who told the paper that Youngkin’s son believe he could vote because “a friend who was also 17 had been allowed to cast a ballot.”

Canty has so far not responded to CNN’s requests for comment.

Devin O’Malley, a spokesman for the Youngkin campaign, said of the incident, “It’s unfortunate that while Glenn attempts to unite the Commonwealth around his positive message of better schools, safer streets, a lower cost of living, and more jobs, his political opponents—mad that they suffered historic losses this year—are pitching opposition research on a 17-year old kid who honestly misunderstood Virginia election law and simply asked polling officials if he was eligible to vote; when informed he was not, he went to school.”

The incident comes at a time when Republicans across the country, spurred by former President Donald Trump, have made baseless claims about fraudulent voting and stolen elections.

Youngkin made “election integrity” the centerpiece of his campaign when he launched in his race in February. Once he won the nomination, he tried to walk a fine line on the issue, calling for an audit on the voting machines that were used in President Joe Biden’s 10-percentage-point defeat of Trump, while also acknowledging that Biden’s win was legitimate.

“I think we need to make sure that people trust these voting machines,” he said in October. “So, let’s just audit the voting machines, publish it so everybody can see it,” he said, ignoring that the State Board of Elections had already run an audit of the election and published the results.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

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