arcane?

Way to make something that should be simple unnecessarily complicated.

Last year this requirement was waved because of the pandemic. But despite still being in the middle of a pandemic, per the instructions on the envelop this year, you're not supposed to even open it except in the presence of your witness. Really??? If I've gotta go find a witness, I might as well wait and go vote early in-person, especially since my early voting location is very close. But what about people who live alone in, say a more remote area, or who may even be disabled or maybe don't drive and/or there's no public transportation. Might they decide to just not participate rather than find a way to satisfy this arcane requirement?

Why isn't the unique voter-matching bar code and your signature sufficient?

Do they really follow-up on any of these "witnesses" who are only identified by signature, no printed name or anything else???

So far, the vast majority of the roughly 10% of mail-in ballots that have been rejected this year and need to be cured are because of missing witness signatures.

Some are pressing Northam to waive the witness requirement this year, too, because of the pandemic.

See "Fairfax board asks Northam to waive witness requirement for absentee ballots" at:

https://www.insidenova.com/fairfax-supervisors-asking-northam-to-waive-witness-requirement-for-absentee-ballots/article_b84ee54a-2763-11ec-a19c-e7c27f4e8ad7.html