Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s veto of a photo identification bill was upheld by two Republican lawmakers who maintained that the election measure was flawed. Siding with a solid bloc of Democrats, Delegate Bob Bloxom Jr. left Republicans one vote short of overriding the governor. The freshman lawmaker said requiring that mail-in requests for an absentee ballot be accompanied by a copy of the voter’s photo “wouldn’t solve anything.” Delegate James Edmunds, R-Halifax, also bolted from the party line. “A picture of someone’s photo doesn’t get compared with anything (at the election office.) It could be a picture of anyone,” Bloxom, of Mappsville, told Watchdog.org. McAuliffe made much the same argument.
“The requirement would not in any way deter fraudulent voting since it provides no means of verifying the identity of the individual depicted in the submitted photograph,” the Democratic governor wrote in his veto message.
HB 1318 specified that the photo ID be “a copy of one of the forms of identification acceptable under current law.”
The bill exempted military and overseas voters and persons with a disability. Currently, only voters who complete absentee ballot applications in person are required to show identification.
Full Article: News Roanoke Virginia.