Action | Material omissions from absentee ballots. |
Stage | Final |
Comment Period | Ended on 10/12/2011 |
I would be embarrassed and ashamed for Virginia to go backward to attempt to limit voting, as the poll tax did. Absentee voting is hard enough already. Signature legibility should NOT be a basis for refusal to count absentee votes. Every day thoughout our society, binding contracts are signed with illegible signatures, and yet they are enforced. Doctors' prescriptions are signed with illegible signatures, and yet they are filled. To refuse to count a vote because of the use of an initial in place of a name is absurd and patently an attempt to minimize voting. Virginia should be moving to make it easier to vote, not more difficult. These proposed restrictions are blatantly arbitrary and capricious, and I urge the State Board of Elections to stop the enactment of the proposed regulation.