“Democrats in Virginia are using the COVID-19 pandemic to press Gov. Ralph Northam to waive the witness signature requirement for mail-in absentee ballots ahead of the gubernatorial election.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted 9-1, with the only Republican voting against, to send a letter to Northam asking him to drop the witness signature requirement like was done during the 2020 election, InsideNoVa.com reported.
MCAULIFFE CALLS BIDEN ‘UNPOPULAR’ IN VIRGINIA AMID BELLWETHER ELECTION
Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeffrey C. McKay, who proposed the letter, reportedly said during Thursday’s meeting that some Fairfax residents had expressed fears that they could potentially catch COVID-19 if required to obtain a witness signature to vote.
“During the 2020 election cycle, Virginia made historic strides to expand voting access while protecting the health and safety of our residents as well as the integrity of our electoral process,” McKay said in a statement Tuesday. “This progress should be extended to the signature requirement. No one should have their ballot rejected because they were unwilling to risk their health and safety. In Fairfax we want to break down barriers to voting not create new ones.”
Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity, the Republican who voted against the proposal, said it would be a “blow to election integrity,” InsideNoVa.com reported.
While Fairfax County has yet to lift its state of emergency order, the state of Virginia’s ended in June and witness signatures were again required to vote by mail.
Herrity said it would be “nonsensical” to waive the requirement now after early voting for the Nov. 2 election started nearly three weeks ago, InsideNoVa.com reported.
“Witness signatures are important as they provide another line of defense against voter fraud,” he said. “They’ve been deemed important enough by the General Assembly that they were reestablished outside the state of emergency.”” msn.com
Comment: What could be more obvious? pl
I signed my oldest son’s ballot as a witness a week ago. There are no qualification or identification requirements for being a witness. If witness signatures are a line of defense, they are an exceeding weak line of defense. They are also not an onerous requirement.
In Alabama your son would have needed two witnesses. Not many states have that requirement, it feels.
no qualification or identification requirements for being a witness. If witness signatures are a line of defense, they are an exceeding weak line of defense.
Yes, curious, thought about that too, while wondering about the genesis/history of voting law in the US and/or its diverse states. Or the history of US elections more generally. This seems to have deep, deep roots.
J/K Gladly for both camps, there is only one camp constantly cheating, I guess.
Our elections would be more fair giving each candidate a number with a ball at this point. One lucky citizen gets to pick the winning bingo winner….meh. Think the Greeks tried something along those lines when corruption got out of control. Gotta try something.
I don’t know why but for some strange reason I thought of Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery”. Gotta get me some good stones!
They stole the last one fair and square so they’ll keep doing it until they get the Chinese style government they desire or they get driven out of power. It doesn’t look like it will be very pretty either way.
“While Fairfax County has yet to lift its state of emergency order, the state of Virginia’s ended in June….”
Wait, Biden was just on tv saying there is an emergency and employers with 100 or more employees have to get them all vaxxed or tested. I wonder what the science on ’emergency’ is and why employee #100 is more dangerous than employee #9? Meanwhile in Florida cases continue to plumet. It’s almost like this ‘pandemic’ has had a giant propganda campaign attached to it for going on two years now.
This is why I am not at all sanguine about 2022. We are about to witness an “historic” electoral phenomenon. The party in total control of government will preside over a) the worst inflation in a generation (with a possible currency crisis by then); b) a mass invasion across the country’s southern border; and c) skyrocketing crime and a general breakdown of law and order in virtually every major city, while propping up a sitting President whose approval polling is in the high 20s (where I imagine it could be by then because he has no floor). And yet!…. they will miraculously enjoy a windfall pickup of seats in both chambers of Congress, perhaps even achieving a filibuster proof super-majority in the Senate. What happens then?
They are losing and need to change voting to steal the election.
If this elections was in the Free and Sane State of Florida, things would be over.
We do not change the rules of the elections during the Election after the hanging chads incident.
Governors can’t change state election laws. County supervisors cannot change election laws. Only the state legislature controls election laws – express terms in the USC.
Deap,
Why are you quoting that quaint old paper which even Chief Justice Roberts won’t defend.
I like how only a racist would require voting IDs because, apparently minorities (I think they mean blacks) are too stupid and generally screwed-up to be able to obtain and ID, but everyone is supposed to have a vaccination card or they can’t work or attend public events. Which is it? Though I don’t know why I expect democrats to make an honest argument or sense of any kind whatsoever.
Biden won because a few counties stuffed ballot boxes with harvested mail in ballots. It worked. They will fight tooth and nail to do it again. But decent Americans can still win congress because congress is bigger than those democrat controlled counties. And what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Republicans should just harvest ballots too.