Local GOP candidates vow to ‘tighten’ voting laws

By Cher Muzyk Times sTaff WriTer

During a recent forum, Republican candidates for local state Senate and House of Delegates seats said they disagreed with Virginia’s law that allows 45 days of early voting and said they would work to shorten the length of early voting, reinstate a photo-identification requirement and do away with same-day voter registration if elected in November.

“Too many people have easy access to voting” in Virginia, said John Stirrup, who is vying for the Republican nomination to run for the House of Delegates’ 21st District seat in the June 20 primary. “Voting needs to be tightened up.”

Stirrup made the remarks during a Thursday, May 18 forum hosted by the Bull Run Republican Women’s Club and held at Out of the Blue Crabs & Seafood restaurant in Gainesville.

“I think voting has gotten way too liberalized in Virginia,” Stirrup said. “Case in point, we now are engaged in 45 days of early voting, which frankly is ridiculous.”

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Warrenton Town Councilman David McGuire, in blue shirt, greets Tim Cywinski, of the Sierra Club of Virginia, during a May 24 protest against the rapid expansion of data centers in Northern Virginia outside Bisnow’s DICE East data center conference at Tysons Corner.