WAYNESBORO, Va. — A judge in a rural Virginia town has ordered two officials there to certify election results after they filed a lawsuit last month threatening not to certify unless they could count the ballots.

Waynesboro Board of Elections Chairman Curtis Lilly and Vice Chairman Scott Mares argued that election officials do not have access to the ballots counted by the machines, preventing them from verifying “the results of the ballot machine’s secret canvas.”

Five registered voters then filed a separate lawsuit to force officials to certify the vote and argue that they would otherwise be disenfranchised. They said officials have no discretion over the certification process. The officers at the polling station level, not the members of the electoral commission, are responsible for verifying the correctness of the vote. And they noted that voting machines are authorized by the Virginia Constitution and mandated by state code.

On Monday, Judge Paul Dryer issued a ruling ordering officials to complete the certification.

“The concerns that defendants raise about the security and accuracy of the election process are best raised through the legislative process,” Dryer wrote. “The personal beliefs of members of a local electoral board cannot derail the electoral process for the entire Commonwealth.”

Thomas Ranieri, the defendants’ attorney, said they agreed to comply with the order. “They are law-abiding citizens,” he said.

The order does not resolve the original lawsuit, which is ongoing.

Research shows that counting hands it is actually more error prone than machine tabulation. It is also more expensive and more likely to delay results. But electoral conspiracy theorists in the US has moved to support hand-counted ballots, four years after former President Donald Trump falsely claimed the last election was stolen from him.

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