In 2013 Virginia, along with many other states, enacted tough voter ID laws that some public officials claim makes it harder to vote.
In 2013 Virginia, along with many other states, enacted tough voter ID laws that some public officials claim makes it harder to vote.
And it didn’t take long a the Republican-lead committee to pick apart the different legislation hoping to make voting easier in Virginia at a committee hearing earlier this week.
According to the Virginia Pilot, three bills dealing with voting laws by Democratic Delegate Richard “Rip” Sullivan were killed this past Tuesday morning.
In an effort to loosen up some of the restrictions voters affecting voters, Delegate Sullivan composed the following bills:
HB68 allows any voter that is properly registered to vote early without giving an excuse or reason and without having to fill out an application for an absentee ballot.
HB32 provides that any person attending college in the United States or a United States territory will be allowed to us their student ids as identification when going to vote.
And HB67 would have allowed the Department of Motor Vehicles to transmit your personal information to the Department of Elections, updating your voter registration when you update your drivers license.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures(NCSL) Virginia is 1 of 13 states in the U.S that does not currently allow early voting and requires an excuse for absentee.
According to NCSL more than two-thirds of the country including D.C have some type of early voting.
If Delegate Sullivan’s early voting bill had passed, voting would have opened up on the 21st day before the general election and seven days prior to any primary election while ending at 5:00 pm Saturday immediately before the election starts.
Making voting easier for people in Virginia has long been an issue for Delegate Sullivan, even before he got into politics.
“When I first ran for office these issues were always an important part in my campaign” said Sullivan. “The bills I’ve introduced this session are directed exactly at that issue.”
When going from door to door during his campaign, Sullivan heard people express their concerns over the voting restrictions here in the Commonwealth. After being in his house seat for a couple of sessions, he now has a some knowledge of the feelings people have towards voting restrictions .
“I hear about it regularly the people are concerned about making sure it’s easier rather than harder to vote,” he said.
The language of all three bills are a mixture of policies that have worked in other states and some that are “unique” to the issues we have here in Virginia.
Delegate Sullivan knows that he isn’t the first person to try and come up with laws to make it easier to vote but he also knows that he has to keep trying and keep talking. Although there must be disappointment, Sullivan said he’ll keep trying.
“I’m hopeful there will be other arguments to persuade people that this is what makes sense,” he said.
