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Office of the 11th Congressional District of Virginia
Formerly the Office of Representative Gerry Connolly
The Washington, D.C., office and the district office of former Representative Connolly will continue to serve the people of the 11th Congressional District of Virginia under the supervision of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. Representative Connolly passed away on May 21, 2025. See Press Release
Connolly Introduces FAST Voting Act to Improve Election Process
Washington, DC,
November 16, 2012
Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) introduced legislation Thursday to make substantial improvements in the states' administration of elections to make voting faster and more accessible to all voters. Read more.
Connolly Introduces FAST Voting Act to Improve Election ProcessCongressman Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) introduced legislation Thursday to make substantial improvements in the states’ administration of elections to make voting faster and more accessible to all voters. Connolly’s legislation, cosponsored by Congressman James Langevin of Rhode Island, is a companion bill to Senate legislation introduced the same day by Senator Chris Coons of Delaware and cosponsored by Senator Mark Warner of Virginia. Connolly’s Fair, Accurate, Secure and Timely (FAST) Voting Act of 2012 would create a competitive grant program in the model of Race to the Top, to encourage states to aggressively pursue election reform. Under the legislation, states that demonstrate the most comprehensive and promising reform plans will earn a greater portion of the grant funding. “We faced long lines at a number of polling places in Virginia. That is unacceptable,” Connolly said. “Virginia and many other states can do better. This legislation is designed to jumpstart election reform and provide states with the tools to make their elections more efficient and more accessible to all voters.” The Connolly and Coons bills were introduced simultaneously in both Houses of Congress just over a week after an Election Day that saw extraordinarily long lines and other voting issues in more than a dozen states, including Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Montana, Tennessee, Hawaii, Arizona, Rhode Island and more. This bill authorizes a federal program to award grants based on how well states can improve access to the polls in at least nine specific ways, including:
The program also requires an assessment of steps a state has taken to eliminate statutory, regulatory, procedural, and other barriers to expedited voting and accessible voter registration. After witnessing voters forced to wait in long lines for more than four hours at some polls in Fairfax and Prince William Counties on Election Day, Connolly vowed to introduce legislation quickly to address the problems he saw and those he learned from constituents who waited in those lines to cast their vote. The full text of the bill is available here. http://fairfaxnews.com/2012/11/connolly-introduces-fast-voting-act-to-improve-election-process/ |