Nick Ignacio served at early voting site, to appear in court Thursday
Nick Ignacio, trading as Fredericksburg Virginia Patriots and a candidate for Clerk of Court in Spotsylvania County, was served with an injunction this morning and must immediately desist distributing misleading sample ballots until his hearing on Thursday in Spotsylvania Circuit Court.
Ignacio has faced criticism for his distributing blatantly misleading sample ballots that identify him as the endorsed candidate by both the Democratic and Republican committees in Spotsylvania.
Neither body has endorsed him.
Ryan G. Mahaffey, who is running for Commonwealth Attorney in Spotsylvania, is listed as the plaintiff.
The Advance was the first to report this on September 23. The story has also been reported by NBC4 out of Washington and the Free Lance-Star.
The Advance will continue to report this developing story as merited.
I was at the early polling site on the first day, and Ryan Mchaffey was visibly upset that they were passing out these bogus forms. Good for him!!
I hope the harm done already has been slight.
I’m curious as to how this impacts others at early voting who were also handing out these same misleading sample ballots? (Knowing Nick’s proclivity for pushing the envelope)…I would not doubt he’ll just have someone accompany him so that someone else is the one that’s TECHNICALLY/PHYSICALLY handing out the actual flyers. Numerous candidates and their ilk have participated in handing these out.
I’ve campaigned at the polls multiple days. I have personally witnessed the misleading ballots being handed out by several candidates and their volunteers, including two current school board members. I’ve also watched them showing people the ballots and talking about the “independent” candidates like Steve Maxwell for sheriff (who’s not independent since he’s the Republican nominee). Ignacio and others have told me personally when I questioned them about the misleading ballots that they aren’t illegal. It’s very disheartening.
I am curious what is wrong with this? I have seen photos of these ballots, none of them use the Spotsylvania Committee logos for either party. It’s simply a sample ballot that says “Spotsylvania Republicans (R)” and “Spotsylvania Democrats (D)”. Neither party endorsed a candidate for Clerk, so sample ballots were made to encourage people to vote for him if you are voting on party lines. If you are too stupid to figure it out, you shouldn’t be voting. If you are voting a particular way because someone else tells you too, that’s a whole other problem.