In a stunning reversal, the state Board of Elections has voted 2-1 to allow seven white candidates extra time to file missing paperwork needed to qualify for the Nov. 2 general election ballot.

Earlier this year, the board announced it had dropped its practice of granting extensions for filing late paperwork. The board then voted to disqualify three Black candidates with missing paperwork who were seeking to challenge incumbent House of Delegate members in the June 8 Democratic primary.

“This is like a kick in the stomach,” Richmond City Councilman Michael J. Jones, one of the three disqualified primary candidates, said after the board approved the extensions at its June 30 special meeting.

Dr. Jones, whose paperwork was not filed with the state by the primary election deadline, was not granted an extension by the state elections board. That ended his challenge to incumbent Democratic Delegate Betsy B. Carr in Richmond’s 69th House District.

“I am disheartened that the board only seems to enforce the policy change when Black candidates are involved,” said Dr. Jones.

He said he plans to file a complaint about “blatant discrimination” with the state attorney general’s Office of Civil Rights.

In the board’s latest action, filing extensions were approved by the two white members of the board, Robert H. Brink, a Democrat, and Dr. John M. O’Bannon, a Republican. Both are former members of the House of Delegates. The sole dissenting vote was cast by the board’s only Black member, attorney Jamilah D. LeCruise.

The most prominent of the candidates receiving extensions were incumbent Republican Delegate Dave LaRock of Loudoun County, and Fairfax County Republican Matthew Lang, who is seeking to unseat veteran Democratic Delegate Kenneth Plum of Reston.

According to board documents, in both cases, Republican Party officials in the 33rd and 36th House districts failed to meet the deadline for submitting Delegate LaRock’s and Mr. Lang’s names as the chosen candidates for their respective districts.

Two independent candidates for the House of Delegates and three candidates for local offices also were granted deadline extensions to file missing paperwork with the state Department of Elections.

In several cases, the candidates said the paperwork was filed with their local election office rather than with the state based on assurances from local officials that was the correct procedure. It was not.

That’s what happened to Dr. Jones. A supervisor in the Richmond voter registrar’s office told Dr. Jones that he could file all the paperwork with that office. Instead of transmitting the documents to the state as promised, the staff member held them in an office file, which Dr. Jones said he learned after the deadline passed.

The two other Black candidates the state board disqualified from the June primary ballot were Matt Rogers, who was challenging incumbent Democratic Delegate Patrick Hope of Arlington, and Dumfries Town Councilwoman Cydny A. Neville who announced her challenge to incumbent Democratic Delegate Luke Torian in Prince William County.