Certain overpass commands throw an exception

[diamondarmorsteve]

This is the query:
[out:json];
{{geocodeArea:Virginia}}->.searchArea;
(
rel["boundary"="census"](area.searchArea);
);
way(r);
out tags;
It seems like using the recursion filter and out tags doesn't sit well with JOSM.

[GerdP]

The recursion filter is not a problem. out:json and out tags don't work. If you change the query to

[out:xml];
{{geocodeArea:Virginia}}->.searchArea;
(
rel["boundary"="census"](area.searchArea);
);
way(r);
out meta;

you get a result but since none of the downloaded ways has any node you can't do much with it in JOSM.

[GerdP]

Maybe you want to try the JOSM wizard with type:relation "boundary"="census" in Virginia