I oppose the State Board of Elections proposal to invalidate an absentee ballot that does not contain the street identifier or a name suffix.  Personally, I do not use a suffix on a routine basis (Ms., Mrs., etc.) and am shocked that my absentee vote could be considered invalid if I omitted this information under certain circumstances.  In addition, from personal experience in Fairfax County, the street identifier is inconsistently recorded in real estate databases.  In some cases, my road will be listed as Street, ST, Lane, or LN - which makes me wonder how this information will be verified and whether this could invalidate my vote.

The changes to the voter identification and absentee ballot rules in recent years disproportionately affect young voters and low-income voters.  While these changes may appear to be "minor," Virginians should be mindful of our Commonwealth's history in the 20th century and refrain from passing laws and rules that disproportionately invalidate votes from certain groups of voters.