Democratic chair asks elections board to let candidate on ballot after email error

During public comment at the Virginia Board of Elections‘ meeting Tuesday, a lawyer for Berry and a representative of the Democratic Party of Virginia advocated for the board to let her appear on the ballot in November despite paperwork filing issues that had disqualified her.

Shyam Raman, executive director of the Democratic Party of Virginia, read a letter attributed to DPVA chairwoman Susan Swecker. It outlined why Swecker says the board should consider Berry a legitimate candidate.

An email that Berry forwarded to the Richmond Times-Dispatch shows local Democratic committee official Clomeniea Oliver sending a party certification form to the Department of Elections on April 10, 2023, but the email address was missing the needed ‘.gov’ at the end to go through. Oliver, who had been battling cancer, has since died.

“It’s clear that chairwoman Oliver intended to certify Miss Berry as the nominee in Senate District nine,” Swecker’s letter read. “The typographical error in the email address does not negate the fact that she made every effort she was able to in order to certify Miss Berry as the nominee.”

DPVA political director Jack Foley and Patricia Harper-Tunley, who chairs the 5th Congressional District Democratic Committee, were included in Oliver’s original email.

Neither caught the mistake at the time, but Swecker’s letter to the Board of Elections said the party was not aware if there was an automated response email with an alert that Oliver’s email did not send.

Though Oliver’s certification never officially came through, Berry was the only Democrat to run in the district before April 6, when candidates would have had to submit materials to local nominating committees. So, Berry, and now DPVA, argue she is the party’s de-facto nominee in that district.