House of Delegates Subcommittee Advances Three Republican Elections Reforms

The General Assembly started out Tuesday with a 7 a.m. House of Delegates subcommittee meeting where Republicans passed some election reforms bills, and ended the day in a lengthy Senate committee meeting where Democrats killed seven of Senator Amanda Chase’s (R-Chesterfield) election reform bills. The House Privileges and Elections Subcommittee One heard three bills focused on absentee voting, voter photo identification and voter registration.

Delegate Lee Ware (R-Goochland) introduced House Bill 46, which bundles a voter photo identification requirement with a repeal of Virginia’s permanent absentee voter list, reduces early voting from 45 days to just seven days, and requires ballots received after Election Day to be postmarked at least one day before Election Day.

“These measures provide first an abundant opportunity to exercise the sacred right to vote, while doing due diligence to ensure that the voters who vote are eligible to do so. Many of you know that I spent 32 years in the classroom, and one class that I taught every year was government,” Ware told the subcommittee. “One of the things that I taught every year had to do with provisions regarding voting. We always brought in the local registrar to sign up 18-year-olds to vote, so for me this is absolutely central to who we are as a representative democracy, a republic in the old term. As a society dedicated to liberty and justice for all, we’re duty-bound to protect the vote of every eligible voter. Every eligible voter, from being stolen, or from being diluted by fraudulent ballots. ”…(Excerpts from the Virginia Star)