Trial in the case of the former registrar goes to the jury

Gibbons' attorney Stephen Pershing said in his closing argument that Troxel and Gibbs, who were appointed to the elections board by Republicans, wanted to “replace Gibbons with one of their own” when they made the decision to hire Daniel Pense as the city's new registrar general.

Pershing argued that Troxel, Gibbs and Pense were all staunch Republicans who attended the same Bible study group at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg.

In his closing argument, David Corrigan, attorney for Troxel and Gibbs, said the decision to replace Gibbons with Pense was not partisan. The two election board members had concerns about how the city's election office had been run under Gibbons, Corrigan said.

Corrigan used a sports analogy, comparing the decision to replace Gibbons with Pense to a sports team hiring a head coach who is superior to his predecessor. Troxel and Gibbs believed that Pense had “higher abilities” to perform the role of registrar than Gibbons.

After closing arguments and after U.S. District Judge Robert Ballou read his instructions to the jury, the seven men and one woman were sent to the jury room to deliberate the case at about 6:45 p.m. Friday. Ballou said court staff would buy the jurors pizza so they could deliberate for as long as it took Friday night to reach a unanimous decision.

At the time of going to press, the jury had not yet reached a verdict in the case.

In their testimony at trial, Troxel and Gibbs denied that they voted against Gibbons' reappointment as registrar for partisan political reasons. Gibbons' term as registrar general expired on June 30, 2023, at which time Pense took over as Lynchburg's election director.

In her lawsuit filed over a year ago in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, Gibbons accused Gibbs and Troxel of removing her as Lynchburg's registrar for partisan political reasons and in violation of the First Amendment.

Gibbs testified Friday that she made the selection of a new registrar based on her observations of Gibbons's conduct of the office and not because Pense is a Republican.

When she was appointed to the Elections Committee in 2022, Gibbs said she wanted to be a more hands-on committee secretary and work to improve the processes at the Registry.

In her testimony, Gibbs accused Gibbons, who was hired as registrar general in 2018, of not being friendly to her when she joined the electoral board. According to Gibbs, Gibbons misinterpreted the large number of questions Gibbs asked her and her staff as “hostility” toward them.

Lynchburg resident Stacy Link, who worked as a poll worker in the city between 2016 and 2022, said in her testimony as a witness for Gibbons on Wednesday that she heard Gibbs say she wanted to “clean up” the “voter rolls” in the city. Gibbs said Friday that she never called for removing people from Lynchburg's voter rolls.

In the spring of 2023, Gibbs and Troxel decided to open the Registrar General position to new applications. Troxel had sought advice from Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, who responded with a letter explaining that it was legal to advertise the position with the goal of replacing Gibbons if it was done for bipartisan reasons.

The city received 33 applications from people interested in the Registrar General position, including one from Pense, who had worked in the financial services industry. By a 2-1 vote, Pense was named the new Registrar, replacing Gibbons, effective July 1, 2023.

Elections Committee Chairman David Neumeyer, the only Democratic-appointed member of the committee, disagreed with the Republicans' decision to replace Gibbons and voted against Pense's appointment.

Gibbs said she was impressed by Pense's familiarity with technology and voting machines and appreciated his “even temperament.”

Earlier Friday, Pense testified that he had seen Gibbs and Troxel “from time to time” at meetings of the Life Group of the Thomas Road Baptist Church hosted by Veronica Bratton, chairwoman of the Lynchburg Republican City Committee.

In November 2022, Pense said he spoke with Bratton, who asked him if he would be interested in the position of Registrar General if it became available in 2023. In response to that conversation, Pense sent his resume to Bratton, who then forwarded it to Gibbs.

During cross-examination, Gibbs was asked how well she knew Pense before he was appointed Registrar General.

Gibbs said she met Pense and his wife at Bratton's Life Study but did not know him well. She added, “I am a single woman and I do not have conversations with other people's husbands.”

Gibbs was also questioned by Gibbons' attorney Stephen Pershing about a Facebook post in late 2020 in which she wrote that she had observed “corruption” in the registry office for years. Gibbs responded that what she wrote in the Facebook post must have been her opinion at the time.

Her lawyers added that the sentiment expressed by Gibbs in her Facebook post was understandable given the poor treatment she received from the Lynchburg Registrar's Office.