Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Ballot Reform? Already?

I heard about this on GPB this morning, but had to go to the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia to link to the AJC to get the full story.
It appears that some legislators, seemingly from smaller and more populous areas, agree that seven weeks of early voting might be a little excessive and may pose problems in smaller counties teetering over an abyss of red ink.
From the AJC:
“There was a concern with the seven weeks of early voting that the cost to hold the voting for that period was excessive for some counties, particularly the smaller counties," said Rep. Mark Hamilton, R-Cumming, chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee, where the bill will be assigned. “And sometimes candidates listed at the beginning of the seven weeks dropped out of the race later on, so people felt like they had wasted their vote.”

But some elections officials and advocates, including the League of Women Voters of Georgia, are concerned that the shortened time period would decrease access to the polls for voters unable to cast ballots during the proposed three weeks.

“It is more important that Georgians have more access to the polls and more opportunities to participate in their government rather than less,” said Tracey-Ann Nelson, executive director for the state LWV branch.

In a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Secretary of State Brian Kemp said he will review the legislation and work to protect the interests of voters in a cost-effective manner.
Read HB 92 for yourself here.

1 comment:

  1. You know what else is costing us money? Paying these chain yankers to make more laws!

    ReplyDelete