The author of a law that essentially mandates state-run primaries says Lynchburg Republicans aren’t following it, and on Thursday, he asked the attorney general to intervene.
Del. Dan Helmer, D-Fairfax County, introduced the legislation now known as Helmer’s law in 2021, and it took effect in 2024. It requires every nominating method to make provisions for absentee voters, which in effect bans party-run nomination processes that have never included absentee voters or aren’t logistically able to.
On Monday, the Lynchburg Republican City Committee voted to schedule one such party-run nomination — a firehouse primary — to select its candidates for the upcoming city council election.
To vote in the LRCC’s firehouse primary, voters must be “in accord with the principles of the Republican Party” and meet qualifications of Republican Party loyalty, according to the plan approved Monday night. Primary elections, on the other hand, are run by the state and are open to all voters because voters do not register by party in Virginia. Firehouse primaries are often seen as a way to keep members of other political parties from influencing who lands on a given party’s ticket.
Helmer sent a letter to Attorney General Jay Jones on Thursday to request “an opinion on the legality” of the LRCC’s decision to host a firehouse primary and “if deemed warranted, all legal action” to prevent the committee from denying the rights of absentee voters protected under his law.
This isn’t the first time that an attorney general has been asked to weigh in on the LRCC’s actions. In 2024, when the committee started the process to conduct a firehouse primary, Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah County, requested an attorney general opinion to address widespread concern with the party’s move. Then-Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican, advised that a firehouse primary would run afoul of Helmer’s law, and the LRCC pivoted and opted for a state-run primary in response.
What’s different this year, said LRCC Chair Veronica Bratton, is that she believes she has a court ruling on her side.
In the wake of the 2024 election cycle, the LRCC filed a federal lawsuit against the Virginia Department of Elections, the State Board of Elections and then-Elections Commissioner Susan Beals, arguing that Helmer’s law unconstitutionally strips political parties of their First Amendment right to free association. In July, a federal judge granted a motion by Beals to dismiss the lawsuit.
But Judge Norman Moon gave the LRCC a path forward in his decision, Bratton said. His ruling states that “parties need only ensure practical levels of inclusion” for absentee voters to follow Helmer’s law.
And that’s what the LRCC is doing, Bratton said in a phone interview Thursday. The firehouse primary plan that the committee adopted Monday night says absentee ballots will be available to voters who fall into the five categories of protected groups described in Helmer’s law: service members on active duty, those temporarily living outside the country, students attending an institution of higher education, people with disabilities and people with or exposed to a contagious disease that is a threat to public health.
The LRCC will purchase the permanent Republican absentee voter list and send mail notices to those on the list to explain how to request an absentee ballot for the firehouse primary, according to a plan distributed at the Monday meeting. Voters can request absentee ballots online and must indicate which of the five protected classes they belong to. Then, absentee ballots will be collected and processed “consistent with the standards” of the Virginia Department of Elections, according to the firehouse plan.
“We have confidence based on the judge’s opinion that what we’re doing is within the balance of the law, and that we are honoring those five protected voter classes, and we are doing what it takes to meet the spirit of the law. And we have a First Amendment right of free association, so we get to pick our own candidates without allowing Democrat interference. Period,” Bratton said.
Moon’s ruling also said that “the Attorney General’s [2024] opinion is just that — an opinion. It is neither a binding interpretation of the law nor a source of law itself.” Bratton said she’s viewing Helmer’s request to the new attorney general with that ruling in mind.
“I would not have moved forward with this if I did not believe that we had legal standing to do it,” she added.
In his letter to Jones, Helmer said the LRCC’s plan to accommodate absentee voters doesn’t include mechanisms to work with the Department of Defense to ensure that those on active duty are able to vote. Those are processes that state-run primaries have, he added, and are all the more important for those “currently exposed to hostile fire” in Iran.
“As Donald Trump seeks to deny democratic accountability for his reckless war in Iran through voter suppression and redistricting, this handful of MAGA LCRC [sic] sheep are bleating to ensure servicemembers impacted by his war are unable to hold them accountable for their breathless support,” Helmer wrote.
“We have a right of free association, regardless of whatever military conflict is going on in the world,” Bratton said. She added, “We can reach those same people that the registrar can reach” with access to absentee voter data.