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| Virginia House Committee Passes Robust Paper Trail Bill After Senate Committee Defeats It |
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| By Ivy Main, New ERA for Virginia | |
| February 06, 2006 | |
An exciting series of meetings in the Virginia legislature this past week saw the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee see-saw on SB 424, an omnibus election bill calling for voter verified paper records, mandatory audits, public disclosure of voting system software and other issues  before finally rejecting it. The Senate committee initially passed the bill 7-5 (with 2 absentions) and then 30 minutes later, after a motion to reconsider in which Sen. H. Russell Potts (R-27th) switched his vote, which effectively killed the bill for this session. Then three days later, the counterpart committee in the House passed a similar bill HB 1243 out of committee. HB 1243 now moves to the Appropriations Committee, whose chairman, Del. Vincent Callahan, Jr (R-27, pictured at right), has already promised his support.Lobbyists from Virginia Verified Voting and the New Electoral Reform Alliance for Virginia had expected a stronger showing in the Senate committee, where supporters had seemed to outnumber opponents. Strong opposition from registrars across the state, however, apparently led some supporters to seek a compromise in a narrower bill that would require the State Board of Elections to conduct a pilot project testing paper audit trail technology in a few jurisdictions. That pilot project bill (SB 272) lacked other important components of SB 424, including a ban on wireless communication, source code review capability, random audits and recount provisions. Over in the House, HB 1243 incorporates all the broader provisions, to take effect in 2009, as well as the pilot project, which would begin this year. Although the usual procedure is for bills to be assigned to a subcommittee first, in this case HB 1243 went directly to the full Privileges and Elections Committee on very short notice. The presence of activists from Virginia Verified Voting and New ERA for Virginia and their testimony proved important, because several State Board of Elections officials and registrars also attended and spoke against the bill, arguing that their tests have not revealed problems with DREs. However, one registrar with a technical background broke ranks to testify about the problems inherent in DREs. The debate among committee members revealed strong feelings about the need for a paper trail. Delegates Rapp, Albo, and Frederick argued forcefully that DREs cannot be trusted. Del. Melanie Rapp (R-96), only half-jokingly, moved to ban DREs statewide. Del. Robert Marshall (R-13), opposing the bill, suggested that there was no way to completely secure an election. HB 1243 narrowly escaped an amendment that would have removed all the provisions except the pilot project, and finally a motion passed to send the bill, as written, out of the committee and over to Appropriations. The support there is uncertain. Eight members of the Privileges and Elections Committee also serve on Appropriations; five of them supported the bill, and three voted against it. Comment on This Article
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