A lot can be said about Delegate Tim Hugo, but one thing people in both parties agree on is he is a very responsive elected official. Sometimes responsive to the point of pandering.
That was the case in the 2007 session, when Hugo at the request of Clifton's Democratic Womens Club introduced a bill doing away with electronic voting in the Commonwealth. Basically the bill said localities could not purchase any new electronic machines, forcing them to begin phasing the machines out and returning to a paper ballot system. Unfortunately as often happens in Richmond, a bad idea passed the House, then the Senate, and was signed into law by Governor Kaine.
Are we really that computer phobic that we think elections are being stolen and our election officials are too stupid to be able to get machines and programs that have enough safeguards in place to avoid these kinds of problems?
Up in Minnesota, we are getting a preview of the kind of chaos that Tim will have brought back into our election system. Check this link out from Minnesota Public Radio. It features a number of different ballots between Norm Coleman and Al Franken that are being examined by hand. It's like Florida with every ballot being challenged for bizarre reasons ranging from thumbprint to size of check-marks.
Thanks Tim. Instead of having quick recounts with clear results in the future, you have managed to take our election system back to something similar to what we had 100 years ago.
Any legislators want to introduce a bill to repeal this absurdity?