House bills to allow early voting and online voter registration died without a vote in a Senate committee on Tuesday, frustrating House Elections Chairman Bill Denny. “They didn’t even take them up in committee,” said Denny, R-Jackson, who also authored both bills. “The Senate Elections chairwoman had said they were DOA. To me that’s almost insulting, to have our committee in the House pass these out two years in a row, then have them pass the full House with no more than two to four dissenting votes, and then the Senate committee not even discuss them, to announce that they are DOA before they even get them.”
House Bill 228 would have allowed early voting in person on machines in clerk’s offices up to 14 days before an election. House Bill 373 would allow online registration for first-time voters. Last year, the Legislature changed election laws to allow people who move to change their registration online, but balked at allowing first-time registration.
Senate Elections Chairwoman Sally Doty, R-Brookhaven, had recently said her committee would not take up the House bills. She said there are too many concerns these days about online hacking and other problems with elections to allow online registration for first-time voters.
Full Article: Early voting, online registration die in committee.