DEAN MIRSHAHI: Richmond registrar David Levine, thank you so much for taking the time to join us.

I want to start off by asking what you think the role of the Richmond registrar is.

DAVID LEVINE: You know, I think role of the registrar is to help ensure that the administration of the elections is run as smoothly as possible.

You know, I obviously have a three member electoral board, and they really are the principle folks when it comes to policy, but our office is really about administering federal, state and local laws and provisions to ensure that the voting experience is as secure, as accessible, as transparent and as accurate as possible.

DEAN MIRSHAHI: You have a deep background in election integrity and election security.

Can you talk about that, and also what drew you to this line of work?

DAVID LEVINE: I've been fortunate enough, thanks to, I think, others in my career, to have had an opportunity to work in many aspects of elections.

Ive had the chance to be an election administrator.

Now as director, but previously as deputy director in this office from 2012 to 2014.

I've also been a senior election management advisor in Washington, DC, and an elections director in Ada County, Idaho, which includes Boise and its nearby areas.

I've also been privileged and fortunate enough to teach elections at George Mason University, research and talk about elections for the German Marshall Fund, the transatlantic think tank and observe elections, whether it's been domestically with organizations like the Carter Center, or even overseas, mainly with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

So, you know, I've had an opportunity to meet a wide variety of terrific folks and really get to look at elections inside and out.

And never, though, did I envision that election administration and elections would take on the kind of prominence that, of course, it's taken on today.

DEAN MIRSHAHI: When you first took over, you talked about how you were going to take stock of this office's weaknesses and strengths.

What were those initial weaknesses and strengths?

DAVID LEVINE: I think one of the things is that we have some folks in this office who bring a lot of experience and expertise.

You know, I'm real fortunate that I came into this office, and we had somebody that had formerly sat in my shoes, Tina Crump, who's now the acting deputy director, and she has been paramount.

And then there are others in the office.

You know, when I think about, you know, there are folks in the tech center on voting equipment, there are folks in terms of election worker training, there are folks on the absentee voting side who have been doing this for a long time.

That has been really helpful in me, you know, being able to get brought up to speed.

You know, one of the things that I think that happens is that, you know, because of what this office had been through, right, their ability to hire people when people left wasn't what it was.

And so in terms of things outside of the election administration, we were a bit thin.

But, you know, we've had good people in terms of sort of who understand how to run the election, but in terms of people who can help supplement that work, right, we've been a bit short, right?

We've had a couple of gaps, and now we're beginning to bring on people to supplement those folks, and I'm excited for what those folks can bring to the table.

DEAN MIRSHAHI: Were there any operational weaknesses that you had to find and deal with?

DAVID LEVINE: You know, one of the things that we recognized in terms of our poll worker training was that there were folks that were looking for more hands-on.

So what we've introduced for this cycle, for example, is we've had more mock collection training.

And that has allowed us, I think, to not only bring in folks that could use a little bit more improvement, folks that were identified by our board, but it's also allowed us to sort of get a sense for, again, you know, what we're doing pretty well on the operational side, and where we could be a little bit better.

DEAN MIRSHAHI: On day one of early voting, nearly 300 people were given wrong ballots.

How did this error happen, and what is your office doing to ensure it doesn't happen again?

DAVID LEVINE: Sure, no, and I'm you asked that question.

I would say a few things, you know?

I think, one, what was really important was we needed to put together a plan, right?

And what we did, you know, in very short order, was we worked out a plan so that, again, we identified the problem, we minimized the number of folks for whom this was... impacted, right?

And we made sure, again, that for those, you know, for anyone that had... that was coming to vote, once we got wind of that error, that they could either vote a provisional ballot that could subsequently be counted, or they could wait for us to order correct ballots for them and come vote, and of course, we have regular ballots, right, for those voters who came in person.

In terms of the mail voting piece of this, right, I think, you know, one of the things that we did was we made sure that we, again, we reached out to... We not only put a statement on our website that acknowledged how we went wrong, but what we were going to do to correct that, and part of what we did was we issued corrected ballots to those voters.

We let them know that those ballots they initially got would be set aside.

And we made sure too that we included a letter with the correct ballot so that they understood why they were getting a second ballot, and why it was important for them to return that ballot, so that they could vote the correct House of Delegate race.

And we overlooked a couple of precincts on a given race, and, you know, that's mea culpa on us.

We're going to make sure that we have more eyes on that process going forward.

We're going to make sure, right, that we're a little tighter in terms of following sort of our procedures, so that, again, you know, we make sure that this is not a reoccurring issues.

DEAN MIRSHAHI: Are you confident you have enough trained election workers to work election day and early voting to make sure that this is a properly, accurately done election?

DAVID LEVINE: We have, right, a again, a full stock of workers, and in fact, we have some in reserve, you know?

And so I feel pretty good about where we're at.

Does that mean that we're not, you know, still looking for a few more, you know, technically sound workers to help make sure that we're able to work our equipment as well as we can?

Absolutely.

Are we mindful about trying to make sure that we strive to have as much partisan balance as we can in Richmond?

Absolutely.

Does that mean, you know, that there could be people that could call out or, again, don't show up, we have to work through that?

Absolutely.

But, you know, today we have, you know, a full roster of folks, we have a decent roster of backup people, and the training is on schedule.

DEAN MIRSHAHI: What does a successful election night look like to you?

What do you think?

DAVID LEVINE: You know, I think successful election means, ultimately, that we have outcomes that reflect the will of the people.

That we have elections that are, the results are accurate.

We have a process that is secure, right?

Not only in terms of the results being secure, but a process that is secure, and that everyone who participates feels safe, and does so.

We want a process that ultimately is transparent, people, you know, feel is transparent, and again, is accessible, right?

That we have everyone who wants to participate has a reasonable opportunity to do so.

And hopefully, if you have all of those elements, people feel, again, you know, hopefully feel confident in the outcome.

That doesn't mean that, you know, necessarily you get all those things.

Obviously, you know, we have continued to have, you know, this country, right, successful elections in 2020.

We've had a successful election largely in 2024.

There were different folks in those elections, in different sides of the political aisle, right, that took issue.

But again, you know, I want us to continue hopefully having elections that reflect the will of the people, and hopefully having widespread confidence in the outcome of those elections too.

That's what I'm hoping for.

That's what we're striving for.

DEAN MIRSHAHI: Mr.

Levine, thank you so much for taking the time.

Appreciate it.