I am opposed to any all bill that make it easier to cheat in elections like these bills being presented. I am opposed to any and all bills that make same sex marriage acceptable. I am opposed to any and all bills that allow full term abortion and allow minors to have abortions with out the parents knowledge. I am opposed to any and all bills that would allow minors to undergo transgender surgery . I am opposed to any and all bills that will raise taxes while the politicians are trying to give themselves a 150% increase no that is not acceptable.

The proposed bill HB968 lacks justification, because the possible scenarios requiring hand counts are all already authorized by law. The amendment is written for polling places but the "as authorized by law" phrase could encompass additional situations requiring hand counts, which are already all addressed by existing law. For example: 1. Machine-readable ballots at a polling place could be non-scannable due to paper issues or machine issues, requiring them to be separately hand-counted. In addition, the high-speed optical scanners used at the Central Absentee Precincts for mail-in ballots can reject and fail to scan some ballots, requiring hand-counts for these “Did Not Scan” ballots. Both scenarios allow for hand counts, as stated in §24.2-642 (B) “Inoperative Equipment.” 2. Recounts can require hand counts, as specified in § 24.2-802.2. “General recount procedures.” 3. If an overseas Military or civilian voter uses the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot form (FWAB), the ballot might not be machine readable and must be hand-counted, as stated in § 24.2-461 “Federal write-in absentee ballot.” HB968 appears to state that that unlawful hand counts are, indeed, unlawful. If a barrage of spontaneous, unlawful polling place hand counts has flooded Virginia polling places, it has not been brought to the notice of the State Board of Elections, nor been covered in the media. The proposed amendment is not needed. Vote NO on HB968.

Oppose. This bill is a solution in search of a problem. It also has the potential of disrupting the exercise of judgment on the part of the State Board of Elections (SBE) in determining the most appropriate process for Risk Limiting Audits, depending on how one interprets the insidious verbiage of "...shall not count machine readable ballots by hand for any reason not specifically authorized for by law" . Those who have spoken in support of this bill needed to search the entire nation for a few outlier examples of incidents with hand counting. Personally, I was the chief election official in my home town for twenty years in New Hampshire. We hand counted every single election and had no such incidents. Hand counting also had the additional benefit of building confidence among election observers who could observe the process. Hand counting also has the benefit of allowing an election official to make a judgment on the intent of a voter, as required by law, when ovals are not completely filled out, or a voter expresses their intent in other ways, such as circling a preferred candidate instead of filling in an oval. These incidents are common and are missed during the scanning process.

The bill would permit workers to rewrite ballots that are not able to be read by the scan machine. This is extremely concerning for UOCAVA ballots that are not meant to be read by a scan machine. Strongly Oppose! As an Election Officer in the Central Absentee Precinct with years of hands-on experience - rewriting the UOCAVA and any other 'unreadable' ballot will take up a lot of additional time to process and report the results.

The bill would permit workers to rewrite ballots that are not able to be read by the scan machine. This is extremely concerning for UOCAVA ballots that are not meant to be read by a scan machine. Strongly Oppose! As an Election Officer in the Central Absentee Precinct with years of hands-on experience - rewriting the UOCAVA and any other 'unreadable' ballot will take up a lot of additional time to process and report the results.

HB51 - added burden to registrars and expenses to towns and counties. With the required 45 day voting season this bill would expand annual days of voting greater than 90 with each additional election. Oppose. HB773 - opens the possibility of fraud when extending the number of days to count the ballots. Oppose. HB 1213 - adds uniformity to each district in collecting voter information for vetting. Support HB1321 - opens the possibility of voter fraud by increasing the number of days from 6 to 10. Oppose. HB968 - Hand ballot counting should always be an option as machine malfunction or are tampered with. Oppose. HB78 - creates an added burden for electoral board members making it more difficult to find volunteers. Oppose.

For the vast majority of paper ballots the optical scanners are a viable method of tabulation. However, there are certain groups of ballots which could be hand-counted. In localities with only a few Provisional Ballots there is no need to certify a separate scanner for the small number of Provisional Ballots which could be hand-counted. The additional expense to the locality to have a separate scanner ready to count a small number of paper ballots is an unnecessary expense. The Electoral Board and Registrar should have the ability to make this choice for their locality. Vote "No" for HB.968

I was unable to sign on to speak for today's hearing. Due to the impassable sidewalks in route to the General Assembly, I am unable to be with you but will be watching remotely. I am Cindy Difranco with Principle Advantage representing Verified Voting. Verified Voting has authorized me to speak in support of HB 968 as it appears that this legislation would not impact manual examination of a ballot during a post election audit. We have previously stated, that Verified Voting does not support full hand counts at the onset. We would ask that ELECT confirm that as ballots sometimes are not readable by the machine due to how the ballot was marked, counting these limited instances would not be impacted by this bill.

HB 28 The League of Women Voters of Virginia supports the bill and thanks Delegate Henson for introducing HB 28. The bill provides for a 90-day quiet period before Virginia elections, when the state cannot conduct systematic voter purges. It parallels the federal law requiring a 90-day quiet period leading up to federal elections. It also protects voters by extending the time for our registrars to cancel the registration of voters deemed to be ineligible to vote and by allowing voters 28 days to respond to a notice of cancellation, which is double the amount of time they now have. Considering the unreliability of mail delivery, that is an important improvement to Virginia’s voter registration rules. HB 78 The League supports HB 78. Past experience shows that the law needs to be clarified. Local Electoral Boards’ post-election duties are prescribed in the Code of Virginia and further detailed in the official handbook for general registrars and electoral boards. Once these tasks are accomplished, the responsibility of certifying an election is not discretionary. The bill codifies this clarification. HB 968 The League thanks Chair Price for carrying HB 968, which is simply a prophylactic measure to ensure that machine-readable ballots are cast on ballot scanning machines. Machine tallies are far more accurate than humans at counting ballots. Using ballot scanners whenever the ballots are printed for that purpose will provide election results quickly and accurately. HB 1213 The League opposes HB 1213. The voters who affirm their identities declare, under penalty of law, that they are who they say they are. Requiring voters to provide additional personal data on their Voter ID Confirmation Statement would needlessly turn legitimate voters away from the ballot box. Thank you.

It is important that we have the ability to verify ballots by hand if necessary to verify election results. Machines break, have proven to be inaccurate, or can be questioned. Technology is great but never takes the place of real people. Virginians want to know that are election results are true and do not want to rely on machines only. Protect our elections!