Pod Virginia

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This week, The Washington Post's Laura Vozzella and Greg Schneider join Michael to explain the purges of Virginia's voter rolls. They start with Governor Youngkin's Executive Order 35, which called for registrars to report voter roll changes on a daily basis, rather than the monthly basis required by law.

They also discuss the lack of evidence for widespread voter fraud in Virginia, as well as the design of the DMV form that makes it easy for Virginia citizens to accidentally mark themselves as non-citizens and set off a process that might see them kicked off the rolls.

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Guest hosts Cameron Thompson, Tyler Englander, and Brad Kutner take the reins...

IN THE NEWS:
The U.S. Department of Justice is suing Virginia over its purging of the voter rolls. The lawsuit alleges the Commonwealth is violating a federal law -- the National Voter Registration Act -- by systematically removing potential non-citizens from voter rolls within 90 days of a federal election -- something banned by what's called the "Quiet Period Provision".

Two Republican members of the Waynesboro Board of Elections have filed a suit challenging how Virginia's votes are counted and are threatening that they won't certify the results of the November 5th election.

The Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program (VMSDEP) story is reaching its next chapter. JLARC put out its findings earlier this month with its recommendations for funding the troubled program, but they reminder lawmakers that they're only options--the final decisions rest with legislators themselves.

TRIVIA: Who is the city of Alexandria named after?

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This week, Michael is joined by the University of Richmond's Associate Professor of Leadership Studies, Dr. Julian Hayter, to discuss the historic 1989 election of Virginia's first Black governor, Doug Wilder--including context, aftermath, and lasting legacy. Hayter wrote the chapter on Wilder's election for the The New Dominion: The Twentieth-Century Elections That Shaped Modern Virginia.

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Check out Black Virginia News


IN THE NEWS:
A coalition led by the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy is advocating for peace during a tense election cycle. They're also participating in "Souls to the Polls" Sunday voting across the state.

Campaign finance documents compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project show political ad spending in favor of incumbent United States Senator Tim Kaine is outpacing ads in favor of Republican challenger Hung Cao by more than 16 to one. That’s more than $3 million in favor of the Democrat compared to $200,000 in favor of the Republican.

 According to a recent report, Northern Virginia is seeing stagnant wages, flat salaries and rising unemployment. Virginia is often mentioned as a great place to do business, but experts say that masks the reality that Northern Virginia is falling behind other major metro areas across the country.


TRIVIA: Who was the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman who went to federal prison for accepting bribes from developers?

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This week, author Kenneth C. Davis (of the Don't Know Much About history books) joins Michael to break down 52 great works of short nonfiction that span from the beginning of history to the modern era--and what they say about history, culture, and humanity.

The World in Books on Amazon

SPONSOR:
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IN THE NEWS:
On question after question in a televised debate last week, Republican Senate candidate Hung Cao responded by mentioning undocumented immigrants. He also tried to claim that Kaine is a feckless senator based on the number of bills he sponsored that became law--a rate that beats most other sitting senators, including VP candidate JD Vance.

Queen of Virginia is the name of a game that looks similar to a slot machine that can be found at convenience stores across Virginia. Some of them were recently modified so they no longer accept cash, although even those machines are illegal according to a memo from Attorney General Jason Miyares. Governor Glenn Youngkin says reaching a deal to legalize them has become a tall mountain to climb.

According to the latest quarterly report from the FBI, crime rates for the second quarter of this year are down in every category. Violent crime is down 10 percent; robbery is down 14 percent. And murder is down 23 percent. Remember those numbers when political candidates are trying to sell the narrative of a crime wave.

TRIVIA: What is Virginia's official state pony?


At the Watercooler:

• Is Virginia in play after all for the Presidential election?
• One of the Progressive Prosecutors for Justice is trash-talking an Alexandria judge for failing to impose a harsher sentence. What's going on?
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This week, Michael is joined by Ben Tribbett, Founder of Pocket Aces Consulting, and former state Delegate David Ramadan to break down the political ads for Virginia races in the upcoming election. What are the messages that candidates are putting out, and how effective will they be?

SPONSOR:
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The Richmond Forum

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Check out Black Virginia News


IN THE NEWS:
Broadcast TV ads once held such a significant place in American politics that candidates would raise millions of dollars to flood the airwaves in an effort to get elected. Now a significant chunk of that is moving online.

Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin is taking credit for record job growth in Virginia. That's despite what he calls "inflationary headwinds from Washington." 

Ask Susanna Gibson about consent. She's got a lot of thoughts because last year a Republican operative shared nonconsensual images of her that upended her campaign for the House of Delegates. Now she's working with a bipartisan coalition to do something about it, and she says draft legislation now circulating among lawmakers would have given her some protection.



TRIVIA: Which election saw bumper stickers in Virginia supporting “Barry and Harry”?


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With a whole bunch of competitive races in Virginia this way, we narrow things down to the very exciting race for Richmond's mayor. The winning candidate will need to win 5 of the city's 9 districts to avoid a runoff. So who's on the ticket? Michael sits down with The Richmonder's Graham Moomaw to break it all down.

SPONSOR:
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The Richmond Forum

LINKS:
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Check out Black Virginia News


IN THE NEWS:
Today is election day in Virginia--and so are the next 45 days. And despite Republican efforts to shorten or eliminate early voting and ballot dropboxes, these new programs were voted on before the pandemic ever began.

Skill games continue to be hotly-debated in Virginia, and now everal of these machines are back up and running in Henrico County. These machines operate in a gray area of state law, since a cashier or bartender acts as a middleman for the money, and a company is making full use of the legal muddiness.

Governor Glenn Youngkin recently got into the politics over banning books in school districts--a practice which he seemed to distance from himself, despite his parents'r-rights rhetoric and public questions about books like Beloved. 


TRIVIA: What famous designer recently purchased a home on Monument Avenue in Richmond?

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