Saturday, July 11, 2009
State board mulling Ware's expenditures
The state board of elections won't act until its next meeting on the complaint over campaign spending.
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From The Roanoke Times
The state board of elections will need more time to establish new regulations regarding voter residency and to address a complaint about the campaign expenditures of Del. Onzlee Ware, D-Roanoke.
The three-member board did not take up either issue at its Friday meeting in Richmond and it is not scheduled to meet again until September.
A special board task force has been working since April to revamp regulations on voter residency, hoping to have new standards in place before the registration deadline for the November election. The General Assembly passed legislation earlier this year requiring the board to adopt new residency regulations, largely because of confusion over whether college students could register to vote using campus addresses.
The task force, which includes registrars, voting rights groups and the state's major political parties, held a lengthy meeting Thursday in which members debated a lengthy draft proposal. The task force will meet at least once more before making a recommendation to the state board.
The board won't act until its next meeting on a complaint questioning Ware's campaign expenditures. The complaint was filed by the campaign manager for Martin Jeffrey, who lost to Ware in a June 9 party primary.
The complaint prompted the board's staff to request Ware to provide receipts and other documentation of his spending. Ware filed amended reports for the final two campaign reporting periods last month. A board staff member said Ware won't face any civil penalties because he filed an amended report on time.
Ware said he plans to file legislation that would give the state board "more teeth" to enforce campaign finance laws and require greater disclosure by candidates.
"If we're serious about transparency, if the board and staff want to get into checking every campaign report, my bill will say file the electronic report by the due date, but within the next month or when the bank statement arrives, file a copy of the bank statement as well as all receipts justifying the expenditures and a summary of the reasons the expenditures were made," Ware said.
