HB2707, Del. Hugo’s verified voting bill, came out of committee on Friday stripped of its language requiring audits and recounts. This is the companion bill for SB840 that has already passed the Senate.
Please contact your legislators and ask them to restore the language for audits and recounts. The constituent hotline is (800)889-0229.
UPDATE: There is an effort on the part of some of the registrars to keep the audits and recounts out of this bill. Please be sure to contact your legislators on this.
Done; thanks for the reminder.
I guess you might have seen where I am a terrible person this morning huh?
BTW: Watkins Abbitt is my excuse for a Delegate.
Posted by Mark Brooks | Monday, February 5, 2007, 12:45 pmThanks for helping with this.
Posted by Alice | Monday, February 5, 2007, 1:59 pmThere are two Democratic candidates — Morris Meyer and Rex Simmons — currently running for Delegate in the 40th, which is the district that Tim Hugo represents. (I also happen to live in the 40th) Therefore, I imagine Hugo is attempting to introduce legislation that accomplishes some small goals so that he can have something to run on. As is pointed out here, however, Hugo’s bill simply fall short of accomplishing what is needed and desired by his constituents.
Posted by Bryan J. Scrafford | Monday, February 5, 2007, 2:05 pmAnd for some reason, Bryan, I started getting Hugo’s emails a while back.
Not only am I not in his district, but I am a Democratic Chair.
Posted by Mark Brooks | Monday, February 5, 2007, 2:28 pmByran – Alex Blakemore and everyone at VA Verified Voting has been working with Hugo and JMDD on this. This bill with give us paper ballots, audits and meaningfull recounts. I know for certain that the language for this bill was vetted by Blakemore and other election integrity activists. It just so happens that Hugo and JMDD have done the right thing in this instance.
We need other measures, but this bill, as submitted by Hugo, is a very good bill.
I don’t think much of Hugo and am looking forward to flaming JMDD in the near future. But they are doing the right thing here.
Posted by Alice | Monday, February 5, 2007, 3:07 pmVivian, I’ve been working on this issue since 2004. If people want to look, I started a joint subcommitttee to look at these machines in ’04 and called for a moratorium in ’05. (See links below)
This is an important issue to protect the integrity of the voting process. We are a step closer to making sure that every vote counts in Virginia.
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?041+sum+HJ174
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?051+sum+HB2096
Nice meeting you at the blog conference in Richmond.
Tim
Posted by Delegate Tim Hugo | Tuesday, February 6, 2007, 8:04 amDel. Hugo – thanks for stopping by. This issue is very important, and I hope the legislature understands why. Integrity in the voting process is imperative.
Posted by vjp | Tuesday, February 6, 2007, 8:36 am