LYNCHBURG, Va. – “Citizens in Lynchburg are mad. They are very angry that this has happened.”
That’s what Veronica Bratton - the former Chairwoman of the Lynchburg Republican City Committee - says voters feel after the recent nullification of the Lynchburg Firehouse Primary.
“People don’t realize 1633 people came and stood in line and they voted. Now their votes have been thrown out; they’ve been disenfranchised,” Bratton said. “People gave up their personal time on a Saturday and on a beautiful Spring day to come and vote. Then they have been treated like this, like they didn’t matter.”
Because of the nullification, Bratton and other Republicans now have to run as independents in the upcoming city council election in November.
Bratton fully intends on running, and she believes she has enough signatures to get her name on the ballot.
“When that happened on Saturday, we came back, we got to work, we have more than enough signatures already,” Bratton said. “We are getting way more than we needed in case any are thrown out because the deadline is 7 PM tomorrow night. We have a motivated base.”
As 10 News reported earlier, the current LRCC has been declared defunct by the Republican Party of Virginia State Central Committee.
Regarding the future of the LRCC, Bratton is taking a wait-and-see approach
“They have until July 1st to get that executive committee in place, and then after that, I guess we’ll see what happens with the full committee, if {that’s} how that membership works,” Bratton said. “We were not allowed to reorganize, which means we’re not allowed to have our own mass meeting to elect our own chair until after November 3rd.”
10 News reached out to other members of Lynchburg like Stephanie Reed and Marty Misjuns as well as the Lynchburg Republican Party for comment, but have yet to hear back.