Specifically in VA since you mention it … we,
@EpecTeam, have been documenting and trying to educate the public on the process’ that are being used (and abused) wrt our elections. At the end of the day, an educated voting public is the ultimate remedy to these issues.
A toxic mixture of bad law, bad policy, bad procedures and bad documentation exists in VA. That is compounded by political pressures and grandstanding.
There are a number of local election officials that are trying to do everything by the book, and do it right. The problem in their case is that the book is incoherent gibberish. But that’s what they have to work with. We want to give credit where it is due, and there are a number of local officials that are trying their best, and working hard. (Many of these officials have been happy for help and will work with groups like ours as well as concerned citizens, within the rules that statewide politicians allow.)
There are also local officials at the other extreme who flout the rules for political reasons, or operate due to simple apathy or not understanding the law and their responsibility to the rules, as imperfect as those rules may be.
The end result is a complete hodge-podge state-wide election administration, making our elections “functionally dysfunctional”.
Unfortunately this situation is not unique to VA.