House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good is vowing to pursue a recount in his neck-and-neck primary race with Virginia state Sen. John McGuire, and is raising concerns that there could have been “malfeasance” in the voting process.
In a conversation with Steve Bannon on his “War Room” podcast, Mr. Good promised his campaign would seek a “full recount.” Both men raised suspicions about the integrity of the election, comparing the primary battle to the widely debunked claims of election interference in the 2020 presidential election.
Mr. Good painted his primary race as a battle of “the swamp versus the Freedom Caucus,” and that his seat could not be “bought” by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who has funneled money to support Mr. McGuire.
Mr. Bannon and Mr. Good said that the primary was a “template” for the November election.
“We’re going to make sure that every day, to the best of our ability, every legal and legitimate vote is counted and only every legal and legitimate vote,” Mr. Good said. “We’re going to pursue every suspicion of malfeasance, we’re investigating that and we’re going to have some extra time to do it during the recount process.”
Mr. Good asserted that his campaign was meeting “resistance” during the campaign and canvass process, and pointed to a situation where he alleged that Mr. McGuire’s team got a two-hour head start during a canvass while his campaign was not notified.
“Obviously we’re forcing for that process to start over, but we don’t know what happened in the two hours before we got there,” Mr. Good said.
Mr. Good and Mr. McGuire have been locked in one the most heated Republican primary races in the country, and one that has brought together differing factions of the Republican Party against Mr. Good — from former President Donald Trump and Mr. McCarthy and his establishment allies in Congress, to aggrieved current and former Freedom Caucus members such as Reps. Warren Davidson of Ohio and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
Mr. McGuire is holding a slim, 330-vote lead over Mr. Good, according to Decision Desk HQ on Friday. Election offices in the 5th District are canvassing the election, a process that allows election officials to count provisional ballots and mail-in ballots completely, and are expected to finish their work by Monday.
In a separate instance on Thursday, Mr. Good questioned the probability of three fire alarms going off in three voting precincts in Hanover, Lynchburg and Albemarle counties on Election Day — something that would have equally affected supporters of Mr. McGuire.
“What is the probability? Does anyone recall even one fire at a precinct on election day,” Mr. Good said on X. “AI estimates the probability being 0.0000000318% chance.”
Meanwhile, Mr. McGuire’s campaign has remained confident that victory is in their grasp — the state legislator said after election night that “all paths end in victory.”
Sean Brown, a consultant for Mr. McGuire’s campaign, said that instead of accepting the results, Mr. Good chose to “undermine the integrity of Virginia voters.”
“His antics now are beneath the dignity of a soon-to-be-former elected official. No matter how many times you count the votes, the result remains the same,” Mr. Brown said. “The math isn’t there for Bob.”
Diana Shores, a spokesperson for Mr. Good’s campaign, told The Washington Times that their campaign was made aware of “fire alarms going off resulting in the evacuation of the polling locations” on Election Day.
Asked whether Mr. Good is insinuating in his comments that there was election interference, Ms. Shores said that “we are not insinuating anything.”
Teresa Smithson, general registrar and director of elections for Hanover County, told The Washington Times that steam from an old water heater tripped the fire alarm at a rural polling place, and that voters and workers were evacuated for less than half an hour.
“Nobody was turned away, nobody was injured, and they continued voting,” Ms. Smithson said.
In Lynchburg County, a fire alarm at Mr. Good’s old stamping ground of Liberty University was tripped by cleaning equipment and voters were evacuated by the fire department for 15 minutes, Daniel Pense, general registrar and director of elections for Lynchburg County, told The Times.
Mr. Pense said that because the polling location was explicitly for students to use, only six voters voted there on Election Day — a voter turnout total that was typical for June primaries, he said.
The Washington Times has contacted the Albemarle County election office for comment.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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