Roy's Report: 08-02-15
file GA08-02-15
General Assembly, Friday February 15th, 2008
At 7:00 am, the House Privileges and Elections - Subcommittee #2, Elections met.
SB35, Deeds, Manual recount.
This says that when a recount is needed in an election, you need to actually re-count the ballots. Under current law, all the officials are allowed to do is look at the output sheets of the tabulator machines, rather than actually run them through again. This would return the law to what it had been before 2002.
League of Women Voters spoke in favor.
Alex of Verified Voting Coalition ditto.
Public comment cut off.
Bill is suddenly "laid on table to give time to fix the problem" I hadn't noticed that there had been one.
MAYBE it will be brought back.
SB38, Deeds, Nonpartisan Redistricting
This would take the power of redrawing election districts out of the hands of whichever party happens to be in power, and give it to a bipartisan commission.
There was a long string of people (including me) speaking in favor of the bill, from private citizens to the League of Women Voters.
No one spoke in opposition.
Subcommittee had a few questions, and considerable discussion among the members.
Miserable voter turnout -- 11%!!!
Unintended consequences???
Inequity here not been identified.
Chair says won't solve problems; defends gerrymandering.
Chair: Demographics rules; redistricting is not political . . .
Chair: Respect proponents, but this bill doesn't solve problem.
Motion: Pass By Indefinitely (kill): passes 3-2
I repeat, there was NO ONE from the public speaking against this bill.
DURN!
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At 9:00 am, the full House Privileges and Elections met, and among other items received the report of the subcommittee that met earlier this morning. Neither of the bills reported upon above was mentioned in that report.
SB38, Deeds, Redistricting.
The Committee had been ready to adjourn without considering this bill, but a motion was made to bring it up.
The motion was apparently defeated by voice vote
chair adjourned the meeting
no count made
repeated requests for role call
refused "You'll have to make that motion at the next meeting."
I have seen meetings that were more orderly, and which adhered more strictly to the rules.
Most disappointing.
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House met at ten, for only half an hour.
During that time, the Chair of the House Appropriations Committee reminded members that the Governor has recently told them that the State's budget shortfall is worse than had been expected. He said that HAC will be announcing their take on the budget Sunday at 2pm, and advised all members to attend, so that they'd be ready for setting priorities Thursday.
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About 10:43 am, the House Courts of Justice met to consider bills already passed by the Senate. Chair says we'll deal with bills that are similar to House bills already worked on here.
Bills that drew objections or debate were referred to the appropriate subcommittee to be worked on.
SB114, sex offenders, referred to Criminal subcommittee.
SB164, No polygraph for victims, referred to Criminal subcommittee.
SB216, guns and mental health, referred to Mental Health subcommittee.
SB241, school policies against sexual offenses by employees, was conformed to Delegate Amundson's bill, HB1067.
SB608 delayed in Committee -- reconsidered -- reported.
actual case where this was used -- per nutter -- now we know that bill has to go through.
27-yr-old and 15 yr old
reported 15-0
Committee rose less than an hour after they had convened; shortest meeting of this Committee I've ever witnessed!
We're warned to expect extensive subcommittee meetings Monday and Wednesday.
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Next significant meetings:
SUNDAY:
2:00 p.m. House Appropriations; 9th Floor Appropriations Room, General Assembly Building
4:00 p.m. Senate Finance; Senate Room B, General Assembly Building
MONDAY:
8:30 a.m. Senate Courts of Justice; Senate Room A, General Assembly Building
House and Senate meet at noon
1 1/2 after House adjourns House Courts of Justice - Criminal Subcommittee; House Room C, General Assembly Building
NOTE THAT THIS MEETING MAY BE MOVED UP, PENDING MEETING OF HOUSE MILITIA, POLICE, AND PUBLIC SAFETY!
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DETAILS:
To see the summary, text, status, estimated cost, votes, or other details on any bill, go to:
http://leg1.state.va.us/. Click on:
“Bills & Resolutions – status of individual bills and related information”.
At the text-entry block, enter the bill and type just as I have it listed above. (Use “SB921”, not “S.B. 921”, for example.)
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REMINDER:
http://leg1.state.va.us/ and http://legis.state.va.us/
These are the two websites where you can access nearly anything you want to know about practically anything related to the General Assembly. Use them!