I support HB440 and urge you to do so as well. Onerous petition requirements impose extra costs on candidates, both in terms of the money that they must spend and in the hours that volunteers must dedicate to paperwork. In cases where a prospective candidate is unable to collect the required number of signatures (or in those cases where they are deterred from even making the attempt) voters are unnecessarily deprived of additional choices in those elections. Allowing for the electronic filing of forms, petitions, and notifications, will ensure that voters do not needlessly lose choices at the ballot box and that candidates seeking office can devote their resources to making sure that the messages of their campaigns are communicated to voters.

I urge you to support this critical bill. This bill begins to address the severe limits on democracy that have been in place in Virginia for far too long. Every election season candidates of every political party and persuasion are faced with difficult requirements to get on the ballot, this bill will help alleviate that burden. I sincerely believe that anyone eligible to run for office should face minimal requirements in order to get on the ballot, while this bill helps improve their ability to meet the requirements currently in place, I would hope to someday see those requirements drastically lowered. I urge the members of the committee to pass this bill and help move our commonwealth towards letting the democratic process play out at the ballot box by alleviating the current onerous physical signature requirements.