Weekly update of my legislative agenda issue.
There are only a few bills dealing with the issue of verifiable voting. SB35 (Deeds) will require that hard copy op-scan ballots be rerun through the machines in the event of a recount. SB292 (Herring) will require random audits of op-scan tabulators within 24 hours after the initial vote counts are completed and before the results are certified. Both bills are in the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee. Passage of these two bills are the rather modest objectives of the Verifiable Voting Coalition of Virginia.
As I perused the bills last evening, I was quite surprised to run across SB685 (Colgan), which seeks to overturn last year’s legislation prohibiting additional purchases of DRE machines. (The bill also calls for modification of the provisions for securing voting equipment after an election.) Given what we know of DRE machines, I can’t imagine a scenario whereby purchasing more of these flawed machines would add integrity to the voting process. This bill should be defeated. Virginia needs to move forward, not backward.
As it stands, I was the first one to add this bill to my Photosynthesis portfolio so I suspect it is flying under the radar. I will be watching – and I hope others will be, too. The bill is in the SP&E committee and, like those above, is not yet on the docket.
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VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 