45 days of early voting is excessive
Dear Editor:
Another commonsense bill was killed by democrats in our state Senate. SB 81 would have reduced our 45 days of early voting (first put into VA law in 2020 due to COVID) down to three weeks.
Our Senators Perry and Subramanyam sit on the Privileges and Elections subcommittee. Both of them, along with all the other democrats on the subcommittee, voted to kill the bill before even debating the merits.
Senators Perry and Subramanyam endorse the tired talk that reducing the number of days for early voting amounts to voter suppression. Really? It must be terrible to be a voter in our neighboring states.
Maryland and North Carolina permit early voting beginning the third Thursday prior to election day. That’s about 18 days. In Tennessee, early voting starts 20 days before election day. In West Virginia, it’s 13 days. In DC, 10 days. And in Kentucky, it’s 5 days.
The reality is that 45 days of early voting is excessive. Mainly, it’s a drain on the over-worked county General Registrars who run elections, their staff, and the election officers from each community who oversee and execute the election.
This year alone there will be three elections, that’s 136 days in the voting cycle and that does not include all the pre and post operations such as Logic & Accuracy testing, Canvass, and Provisional ballot hearings.
Commonsense is rare these days. Or at least the ability to act on it. Senators Subramanyam and Perry fit the mold of politicians who are unwilling to take a stand for commonsense out of fear of what the far left will say.
Michael McDaniel
Leesburg
Comments
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In response to the letter from Michael McDaniel concerning the length of time for early voting. Your concerns for the “overworked staff” are overblown, as that is their job. –to run federal, state and local elections. The Presidential Primary and the Presidential Elections are both mandated by the Federal Government, so no one has any say for the timing of the Elections. An FYI, there are three members of the Electoral Board–two Republicans and one Democrat.