Delegate Bob Brink - Arlington, Virginia

January 30, 2005

Dear Friend:

Faster, Faster . . .

It’s just over a week before Crossover – when all bills have to be considered by the house of origin and either killed off or sent to the Other Body – and the pace is picking up. The subcommittees start meeting as early as 6:30 a.m. and work well past 8:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon and evening meetings aren’t uncommon. The floor sessions, which were desultory affairs that began at noon with speechifying and concluded only a few moments later, now stretch into hours. As of today, of the 1794 bills and resolutions introduced in the House, 416 have passed, 572 have failed, 296 have been continued, and over 1350 are pending. We have our work cut out for us.

Remember November . . .

In the wake of the 2000 Florida election debacle, Virginia joined other states in revising its election processes. The first major test of these new procedures was this past November’s Presidential election.

For the most part, the 2004 elections in Virginia ran smoothly. Voters across the Commonwealth did experience various problems, however, and some twenty bills, patroned by both Democrats and Republicans from diverse regions of the state, were introduced this Session to address a few of the systemic defects.

Most of these bills grew out of a study done by the New Electoral Reform Alliance for Virginia (New ERA for VA), a coalition of over 100 Virginians who support a bipartisan package of common-sense, moderate electoral reform to make the process more efficient for all voters.

On Wednesday, I was joined at a press conference by Senator Ticer and Delegates Ebbin, Eisenberg, Amundson, Baskerville, and Marshall to announce a series of bills intended to make the voting process more efficient, user-friendly, and trustworthy.

Several of my bills were in the package.

HB 2415 will make substantial improvements to the provisional ballot process. If voters are not on the rolls when they arrive to vote, they are allowed to cast a provisional ballot that will not be counted until an appeal is made to the local electoral board. Currently, the right to appeal is made orally and the common practice is for the board to meet to hear the appeals the day after the election. My bill would require written notice and give the appellant more time to make the appeal in person.

HB 2412 will help straighten out many problems that have been encountered in the voter registration process by ensuring the integrity and the accountability of privately sponsored voter registration drives. Last year, there were reports of people being denied the right to vote because the groups that solicited their registration never turned the forms in to the appropriate registrar’s office. My bill would require that materials being distributed to groups that solicit registrations include notice of the penalties for willful destruction of registration applications or failure to deliver them as promised.

I also patroned another election bill (HB 1847) which passed the House earlier and is now in a Senate committee. It requires at least one member of the local electoral boards and one person from the general registrar’s office to attend and annual training programs provided by the State Board of Elections. Every year we enact scores of bills changing election procedures. The people who run elections need to attend these training sessions to keep abreast of current procedures and requirements.

I am very optimistic that these bills will pass this year. More important, the bills have received broad bipartisan support both within the General Assembly and across the Commonwealth.

Alas, several other election reforms fell by the wayside. One of the most important, allowing easier absentee voting, was defeated on a near party-line vote. Another, my bill to cut down on the long lines at the polls that we experienced last November by upping the number of voting machines in each precinct, met a similar fate. Costs too much, they said. Price of democracy, I replied.

Six Decades Ago . . .

On Monday, the Virginia Holocaust Museum had a reception to introduce the Assembly to their new Richmond location that opened in April 2003 in an old warehouse in Shockoe Bottom. The building now features an auditorium/synagogue which is a replica of the famous choral synagogue in Lithuania, a Survivors’ Room and a cattle car which serve as places for meditation, and 27 exhibits, with more in the planning stage. There were several survivors of the Holocaust at the reception to share their stories and hospitality with us.

This set the tone for a moving speech by Arlington Delegate Al Eisenberg on Thursday, the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. He spoke of millions of people murdered solely because they were Jews, Romani, homosexual, or numerous other disfavored groups. “Their terrible experience…reminds us of how prejudice and hate can result in despicable horror,” he said.

Food, Glorious Food . . .

For many years Senator Mary Margaret Whipple and Former Senator Madison Marye co-sponsored a food tax reduction bill, a tenet of the Democratic Caucus, without success. One year it was passed, then immediately slapped down because the car tax cut was given a higher priority.

This year, Governor Warner set aside $99 million in his budget to cover the revenue loss that localities would feel from cutting the food tax. Delegate Vince Callahan and Senator John Chichester, chairs of the money committees in each body, patroned the bills and it breezed through both chambers without a whimper of debate. Timing is everything. Just remember on July 1, when the sales tax on groceries drops from 4% to 2.5%, that our Senator has been fighting the good fight for years.

Visitors . . .

Two of Arlington’s Finest visited with us on Thursday. Former Delegate Karen Darner set up a booth in the GAB foyer in her role as Chair of the Virginia Council on the Status of Women, and David Briggs, a new member of the Virginia Commission for the Arts, trudged the halls of the GAB, seeking support for the arts budget amendments.

Hopefully you will visit us as well.

Sincerely,

Bob Brink