Residents press Hanover supervisors on election integrity and school discrimination during citizens' time

At the start of the Nov. 13 meeting residents raised sharply contrasting views about recent elections and school district conduct.

Paul Teal (Mechanicsville District) and other speakers urged hand-counting paper ballots and said they had purchased state voter rolls and identified registration anomalies; Teal said "nowhere in the constitution or in the code of Virginia 24-2 does a law mandate the use of electronic voting systems" and argued for greater public counting transparency. Buddy Hogg echoed those concerns and urged the board to "look at the evidence."

Several other citizens pushed back. Peggy Lavender, the Democratic representative on the Hanover County electoral board, described the registrar's office as "experienced, serious and amazing people" and said the county was preparing a risk-limiting audit. Kristen Stevens, a first-time poll worker, described her precinct's checks and balances and encouraged critics to take training classes to understand election procedures.

Education issues also dominated public comment. Hunter (Pat) Jordan spoke about discrimination complaints she said were not being addressed by the school board and urged the supervisors to consider appointments to the school board carefully; other speakers described the school board meeting the prior night as chaotic and called for more empathy and training from school leadership.

Board members listened without immediate action during citizens' time; several supervisors later encouraged engagement with the registrar's office and with community groups and asked staff to continue monitoring ongoing audits and processes.