Elections & Redistricting
| Bills | Committee | Last action | Date |
| HB 26 - Reid - Voter identification; accepted forms of identification, private entities licensed or certified. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections (S) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (H) House sustained Governor's veto | 04/17/24 |
| notes: Adds to the list of accepted forms of identification for purposes of voting a valid identification card that contains a photograph of the voter and is issued by any private entity that is licensed or certified, in whole or in part, by the Department of Health, Department of Social Services, Department of Medical Assistance Services, or Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. | |||
| HB 55 - Wright - Primary elections; candidates for nomination, withdrawal of candidacy. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections (S) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (G) Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0166) | 03/28/24 |
| notes: Provides that if a person who is a candidate for nomination by a political party at a primary election and who appears on the ballot for such election withdraws his candidacy on or after the forty-fourth day before but prior to the Tuesday immediately preceding the primary election, and the result of such withdrawal is one remaining candidate who is now unopposed, the remaining candidate will be declared the party's nominee for the office sought and the primary election will be canceled. The bill requires the notice of withdrawal to be signed and notarized and to be submitted to the general registrar, who then transmits it to the local electoral board and the State Board of Elections, along with a certification that the remaining candidate is now unopposed for nomination. The State Board is required to declare the remaining candidate to be the nominee within one calendar day of receiving such notice, and the local electoral board is then required to petition the circuit court for the cancellation of the primary election. Finally, the bill directs the State Board to prescribe procedures for canceling a primary election, including instructions for locking and securing voting systems, disposition of marked and unmarked absentee ballots, and voter notification. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2025. | |||
| HB 90 - McNamara - Candidates; declaration of candidacy for primary. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections (S) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (G) Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0169) | 03/28/24 |
| notes: Requires a candidate for nomination by primary to file a written declaration of candidacy including a statement that his name shall not be printed on the ballots for that office in the succeeding general election if the candidate withdraws from or is defeated in the primary. Under current law, only candidates who are defeated in a primary election are subject to such restriction. | |||
| HB 111 - Sullivan - President and Vice President; binding of electors, filling vacancies. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections (S) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (H) Enacted, Chapter 801 (effective 7/1/24) | 04/17/24 |
| notes: Provides that an elector who is selected by the state convention of any political party and who, at the convening of the electors after the election, refuses to present a ballot, presents an unmarked ballot, or presents a ballot marked in violation of his oath stating that he would, if elected, cast his ballot for the candidates for President and Vice President nominated by the party that selected the elector, or as the party may direct in the event of the death, withdrawal, or disqualification of the party nominee, is deemed to vacate the office of elector. The bill provides that the other electors present shall immediately fill such vacancy in the same manner as a vacancy due to an elector's death or failure or inability to attend. The bill applies the same provisions to electors who are named in a petition of qualified voters not constituting a political party. The bill contains technical amendments that consolidate into a single chapter the provisions of Title 24.2 relating to presidential electors. | |||
| HB 126 - Watts - Candidates for office; persons entitled to have name printed on ballot, required reports. | (H) Committee on Appropriations (S) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (S) Left in Privileges and Elections | 03/09/24 |
| notes: Provides that a person who fails to file at least one of the campaign finance reports required by law to be filed in an election year by August 1 is not entitled to have his name printed on the ballot at the general election for the office sought. | |||
| HB 128 - Watts - Door-to-door vendors; local regulation, political parties exempted. | (H) Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns (S) Committee on Local Government | (G) Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0172) | 03/28/24 |
| notes: Provides that local ordinances regulating the activities of door-to-door vendors shall not apply to any person participating in certain specified political activities. | |||
| HB 130 - Convirs-Fowler - Constitutional officers; dual office holding, prohibited for deputies and other persons. | (H) Committee on Rules | (H) Continued to 2025 in Rules | 02/01/24 |
| notes: Provides that the current prohibition on dual office holding that is applicable to constitutional officers also applies to deputies of such officers and any persons serving in such officer's absence until a special election to fill the vacancy is held. | |||
| HB 224 - Henson - Public schools; mental health awareness training. | (H) Committee on Education (S) Committee on Education and Health | (H) Communicated to Governor | 04/17/24 |
| notes: Requires the health education program required for each public school to include, at such grade levels as the Board of Education deems appropriate, an age-appropriate program of instruction on suicide prevention and awareness, consistent with curriculum guidelines developed by the Board and approved by the State Board of Health, that includes instruction on the importance of safe and healthy choices in relation to mental health wellness, healthy coping strategies, and strategies and resources for seeking help when a student is or knows someone who is experiencing thoughts or ideations of suicide or self-harm. The bill requires the Board to develop and the State Board of Health to approve curriculum guidelines for such program of instruction on suicide prevention and awareness. The bill also requires each teacher and other relevant personnel, as determined by the applicable school board, employed on a full-time basis to complete mental health awareness training that addresses the needs of youth populations that are at a high risk of experiencing mental health challenges and disorders. Current law requires such teachers and personnel to complete mental health awareness training but does not contain any requirements relating to the specific topics such training must address. | |||
| HB 276 - Helmer - Campaign advertisements; independent expenditures, electioneering communications. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (H) Continued to 2025 in Privileges and Elections | 01/26/24 |
| notes: Broadens the scope of disclaimer requirements for campaign advertisements to include electioneering communications, as defined in the bill, and messages advocating for the passage or defeat of a referendum. The bill also requires an advertisement that is an independent expenditure or that expressly advocates for the passage or defeat of a referendum to contain a disclaimer providing the names of the advertisement sponsor's three largest contributors. The bill also requires independent expenditure reports to be filed electronically. Current law allows such reports to be filed either electronically or in writing. | |||
| HB 363 - Reid - Candidates for office; disqualification, affidavit of eligibility. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (H) Continued to 2025 in Privileges and Elections | 02/09/24 |
| notes: Provides that any person who is found to have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States or to have given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof shall be disqualified from holding any office of the Commonwealth or of its governmental units in accordance with Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Persons holding office who are so disqualified may be removed by a writ of quo warranto, except that a member of the General Assembly may be removed by the house in which he sits. The bill requires any candidate for any elective office to submit an affidavit of eligibility attesting that such candidate is eligible to hold elective office under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. | |||
| HB 440 - Cole - Candidates for office; electronic filing of forms, petitions, and notifications. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (H) Continued to 2025 in Privileges and Elections | 02/02/24 |
| notes: The bill requires the Department of Elections to develop and implement an online filing system to accept any form, petition, or notification filed by electronic means by a party official or candidate. The bill requires the State Board of Elections to develop standards for the electronic preparation, production, submission, and transmittal of all forms required of party officials and candidates. The bill also requires the State Board to prescribe all candidate and party forms in both paper and electronic formats. The bill allows for the collection of petition signatures by electronic means and provides formal requirements for signatures on electronic petitions. The bill makes technical amendments to provide uniformity in requirements for all such electronic filings. | |||
| HB 441 - Bennett-Parker - Polling place; assistance for certain voters, clarifies definition of "person with a disability." | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections (S) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (G) Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0191) | 03/28/24 |
| notes: Amends the definition of "person with a disability" for purposes of the Elections title to mean any person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of his major life activities or who has a record of such impairment. The bill provides that any qualified voter who is a person with a disability shall be eligible for assistance outside of the polling place and makes technical amendments for consistency. The bill requires the training required for all officers of election to include specific training on voting outside of a polling place and directs the Department of Elections to incorporate into guidance documents for election officials the processes and procedures for voting outside of the polling place, including best practices for providing assistance for voters with disabilities. | |||
| HB 565 - Askew - Voter registration; registration of Department of Motor Vehicles customers, automatic update. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (H) Continued to 2025 in Privileges and Elections | 02/09/24 |
| notes: Provides that the information gathered by the Department of Motor Vehicles for a person who indicates that he is already registered to vote is to be automatically transmitted to the Department of Elections for the purpose of updating an existing voter registration record. Under current law, a person must be presented with the option to decline to have his information transmitted to the Department of Elections before such information may be transmitted. | |||
| HB 623 - Price - Rights of voters; covered practices, civil cause of action, standing, jurisdiction, and venue. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections (S) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (H) House sustained Governor's veto | 04/17/24 |
| notes: Provides that, in addition to voters who are members of a protected class and the Attorney General, any organization whose membership includes voters who are members of a protected class or any organization whose mission, in whole or in part, is to ensure voting access shall be entitled to institute a civil cause of action for alleged violations of certain laws related to the rights of voters. The bill provides that the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond shall have jurisdiction over such actions and such actions shall be subject to expedited pretrial and trial proceedings and receive an automatic calendar preference. The bill also adds to the definition of "covered practice" any change that reduces the number of voter satellite offices in a locality or reduces the number of days or the hours of operation of a voter satellite office in a locality. | |||
| HB 658 - Cole - Elections; allows for any local or constitutional office to be conducted by ranked choice voting. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (H) Continued to 2025 in Privileges and Elections | 01/26/24 |
| notes: Allows elections for any local or constitutional office to be conducted by ranked choice voting. Under current law, only elections of members of a county board of supervisors or a city council are allowed to be conducted by ranked choice voting. The bill also clarifies requirements for conducting elections using ranked choice voting and requires results for elections conducted by ranked choice voting to be reported along with other results reported on election night, except that such results must clearly be identified as preliminary and based on the first rankings in a ranked choice voting election. The bill provides that final tabulation for an election for a local or constitutional office that is not shared by more than one county or city is required to be conducted on the same day as other results are canvassed by the local electoral board and that final tabulation for and election for a local or constitutional office that is shared by more than one county or city is required to be conducted at a centralized facility under the supervision of the Department of Elections. The bill specifies that ranking data is required to be made publicly available by the Department and requires the State Board of Elections to provide standards and to approve vote tabulating software for use with existing voting systems in elections conducted by ranked choice voting. The bill also limits a risk-limiting audit of an election conducted using ranked choice voting to the first choice rankings reported on voting systems. Finally, the bill directs the Department to review the testing and approval framework for voting equipment in the Commonwealth and submit a report of such review no later than the first day of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly. | |||
| HB 694 - O'Quinn - Absentee voting; counting ballots prior to the close of polls. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (H) Continued to 2025 in Privileges and Elections | 02/09/24 |
| notes: Allows officers of election at a central absentee precinct to begin ascertaining and recording the number of votes cast by absentee ballots at any time after noon on the day of the election. Under current law, absentee ballots that are counted by hand may be tallied, but not counted, at any time after noon on the day of the election, and no ballot totals for any absentee ballots shall be ascertained until after polls close. The bill also clarifies that vote totals for absentee ballots cast in person on voting systems cannot be determined until the day of the election. The bill also requires that general registrars begin processing absentee ballots on the fourteenth day prior to the day of the election. Under current law such processing is not required until the seventh day prior to the day of the election. | |||
| HB 730 - Sickles - Campaign finance; independent expenditure reports, electronic filing required. | (H) Committee on Appropriations (S) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (G) Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0206) | 03/28/24 |
| notes: Requires independent expenditure reports to be filed electronically. Current law allows such reports to be filed either electronically or in writing. | |||
| HB 941 - Shin - Absentee voting in person; voter satellite offices, etc. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (H) Continued to 2025 in Privileges and Elections | 01/26/24 |
| notes: Requires, for any general election, at least one voter satellite office to be established on the campus of any baccalaureate public institution of higher education that has more than 3,000 enrolled students. The bill directs the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia to report each year to the State Board of Elections the number of enrolled students, as defined by the bill, at each baccalaureate public institution of higher education and requires the State Board to use this number to determine which institutions meet the enrollment threshold for requiring an on-campus voter satellite office for the general election held the following year. The governing body of a county or city where a baccalaureate public institution of higher education meeting the enrollment threshold is located, or the general registrar serving such county or city, shall collaborate with the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia to select a location for the establishment and operation of a voter satellite office on such institution's campus. The location selected shall be within the student activity center on the institution's campus, unless such placement creates an undue burden on the operation of such institution, in which case the location selected shall be centrally located on the institution's campus. | |||
| HB 942 - Shin - Polling places and voter satellite offices; locations, restrictions, requirements, & considerations. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections (S) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (S) Left in Privileges and Elections | 03/09/24 |
| notes: Prohibits the placement of a polling place or a voter satellite office within a police station or sheriff's office, but permits the placement in a public building that houses multiple offices that include a police station or sheriff's office. The bill sets out certain factors to be considered by a governing body when setting the locations for voter satellite offices, including a location's proximity to public transportation and the equitable distribution of locations within the locality's boundaries. The bill also provides for the establishment and operation of a polling place on the tribal reservation of any recognized Indian tribe in the Commonwealth on the day of a general election and for the establishment and operation of a voter satellite office on the tribal reservation of any such tribe on the first and second Saturday immediately preceding the day of a general election. Such establishment and operation shall be done at the request of the tribal council or the chief of the Indian tribe and such request must be made no later than 180 days before the general election. The bill includes technical amendments to consolidate related provisions of law. | |||
| HB 989 - Tran - Elections administration; duties of Dept. of Elections, required election and voter participation. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections (S) Committee on Finance and Appropriations | (G) Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0406) | 04/04/24 |
| notes: Requires the Department of Elections to provide information for voters on its website, including (i) the role of and contact information for the State Board of Elections, the Department of Elections, local electoral boards, and general registrars and (ii) information about absentee voting, polling hours, Virginia's voter identification requirements and acceptable forms of identification, the casting of ballots, and a means for voters to find their polling place. The bill requires such website to allow a voter to review any information about himself that is kept in the statewide voter registration database. The bill also requires that the Department provide a version of its website in which all parts are translated into any language that is spoken by a language minority group, including that any page linked to a translated page also be translated. | |||
| HB 1171 - Wachsmann - Absentee voting; processing absentee ballots returned before election day, processing upon receipt. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections (S) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (S) Defeated by Senate (19-Y 21-N) | 03/06/24 |
| notes: Requires the general registrars to complete the initial processing of absentee ballots that are returned before election day within two business days of receipt. Under current law, registrars are directed to mark the date of receipt in the voter's record and examine the ballot envelope to verify completion of the required voter affirmation when an absentee ballot is returned but are not subject to a deadline for doing so. | |||
| HB 1408 - Srinivasan - Voter satellite offices; standards and guidelines for determining number and location. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections (S) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (H) House sustained Governor's veto | 04/17/24 |
| notes: Directs the Department of Elections to develop standards for determining (i) the minimum number of voter satellite offices to be established in a county or city and (ii) the location of such satellite offices. Such standards must take into account a county or city's population of registered voters, population density and distribution, proximity to major transportation corridors, and access to public transportation. | |||
| HB 1490 - Reaser - Absentee voting in person; voter satellite offices, days and hours of operation. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections (S) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (S) Continued to 2025 in Privileges and Elections (15-Y 0-N) | 02/27/24 |
| notes: Authorizes the governing body of any county or city establishing voter satellite offices for absentee voting in person to prescribe, by ordinance, the dates and hours of operation for such offices. The bill prohibits any reduction in the dates or hours of operation of such offices to be enacted within 60 days of any general election. | |||
| HJ 2 - Bennett-Parker - Constitutional amendment; qualifications of voters, right to vote, persons not entitled to vote. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (H) Continued to 2025 in Privileges and Elections | 02/09/24 |
| notes: Provides that every person who meets the qualifications of voters set forth in the Constitution of Virginia shall have the fundamental right to vote in the Commonwealth and that such right shall not be abridged by law, except for persons who have been convicted of a felony and persons who have been adjudicated to lack the capacity to understand the act of voting. A person who has been convicted of a felony shall not be entitled to vote during any period of incarceration for such felony conviction, but upon release from incarceration for that felony conviction and without further action required of him, such person shall be invested with all political rights, including the right to vote. Currently, in order to be qualified to vote a person convicted of a felony must have his civil rights restored by the Governor or other appropriate authority. The amendment also provides that a person adjudicated by a court of competent jurisdiction as lacking the capacity to understand the act of voting shall not be entitled to vote during this period of incapacity until his capacity has been reestablished as prescribed by law. Currently, the Constitution of Virginia provides that a person who has been adjudicated to be mentally incompetent is not qualified to vote until his competency is reestablished. | |||
| SB 78 - Favola - Campaign advertisements; definitions, independent expenditures, electioneering communications. | (S) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (S) Read third time and defeated by Senate (19-Y 21-N) | 02/12/24 |
| notes: Broadens the scope of disclaimer requirements for campaign advertisements to include electioneering communications, as defined in the bill, and messages advocating for the passage or defeat of a referendum. The bill also requires an advertisement that is an independent expenditure or that expressly advocates for the passage or defeat of a referendum to contain a disclaimer providing the names of the advertisement sponsor's three largest contributors. The bill also requires independent expenditure reports to be filed electronically. Current law allows such reports to be filed either electronically or in writing. | |||
| SB 109 - Suetterlein - Candidates; declaration of candidacy for primary. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections (S) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (G) Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0264) | 03/28/24 |
| notes: Provides that the declaration of candidacy include a statement that if the signer's name appears on the primary ballot and he is not nominated then his name is not to be printed on the ballots for that office in the succeeding general election. | |||
| SB 131 - Ruff - Primary elections; candidates for nomination, withdrawal of candidacy. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections (S) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (G) Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0230) | 03/28/24 |
| notes: Provides that if a person who is a candidate for nomination by a political party at a primary election and who appears on the ballot for such election withdraws his candidacy on or after the forty-fourth day before but prior to the Tuesday immediately preceding the primary election, and the result of such withdrawal is one remaining candidate who is now unopposed, the remaining candidate will be declared the party's nominee for the office sought and the primary election will be canceled. The bill requires the notice of withdrawal to be signed and notarized and to be submitted to the general registrar, who then transmits it to the local electoral board and the State Board of Elections, along with a certification that the remaining candidate is now unopposed for nomination. The State Board is required to declare the remaining candidate to be the nominee within one calendar day of receiving such notice, and the local electoral board is then required to petition the circuit court for the cancellation of the primary election. Finally, the bill directs the State Board to prescribe procedures for canceling a primary election, including instructions for locking and securing voting systems, disposition of marked and unmarked absentee ballots, and voter notification. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2025. | |||
| SB 165 - Reeves - Candidates for office; petition of qualified voters, start date. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections (S) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (G) Approved by Governor-Chapter 498 (effective 7/1/24) | 04/04/24 |
| notes: Clarifies the date from which valid signatures for petitions of qualified voters can be collected for persons seeking to become candidates in certain elections. | |||
| SB 188 - Rouse - Election of certain governing bodies; conversion to single-member districts. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections (S) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (S) Communicated to Governor | 04/17/24 |
| notes: Allows the governing body of a locality that has been subject to a court order imposing a remedial election system under voting rights laws to adopt an ordinance to convert one or more at-large seats of such body to single-member districts. The bill provides that members of such governing body in office on the effective date of such ordinance shall complete their terms of office. | |||
| SB 196 - VanValkenburg - Voter registration; list maintenance data standards, challenges to a voter's registration. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections (S) Committee on Finance and Appropriations | (S) Communicated to Governor | 04/17/24 |
| notes: Prohibits the use of voter data received from another state or jurisdiction or through a list comparison for list maintenance purposes when the data file does not include a unique identifier for each individual whose information is contained in the data file. The bill requires the Department of Elections to annually audit all sources of data utilized for list maintenance activities for the purpose of determining the validity, completeness, accuracy, and reliability of the data received from each source, and to include the results of such audit in its annual report to the Committees on Privileges and Elections regarding its list maintenance activities. Lastly, the bill provides that the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond has jurisdiction over any proceeding challenging a voter's registration. The bill includes technical amendments. | |||
| SB 270 - Subramanyam - Presidential primaries; ranked choice voting, effective clause. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections (S) Committee on Finance and Appropriations | (H) Continued to 2025 in Privileges and Elections | 02/23/24 |
| notes: Allows political parties to hold presidential primaries using ballots that allow a voter to rank such party's candidates in his order of choice. | |||
| SB 315 - Salim - Voter registration; registration of DMV customers, updates to existing registration. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections (S) Committee on Finance and Appropriations | (H) Continued to 2025 in Privileges and Elections | 02/23/24 |
| notes: Provides that the information gathered by the Department of Motor Vehicles for a person who indicates that he is already registered to vote is to be automatically transmitted to the Department of Elections for the purpose of updating an existing voter registration record. Under current law, a person must be presented with the option to decline to have his information transmitted to the Department of Elections before such information may be transmitted. | |||
| SB 326 - Roem - Campaign finance; prohibited contributions to candidates. | (S) Committee on Finance and Appropriations | (S) Left in Finance and Appropriations | 02/14/24 |
| notes: Prohibits candidates, campaign committees, and political committees from soliciting or accepting contributions from any public utility, as defined in the bill, and prohibits any public utility or any political committee established by such public utility from making any such contribution. | |||
| SB 364 - Ebbin - Elections; protection of election officials, penalty. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections (S) Committee on Finance and Appropriations | (H) Enacted, Chapter 787 (effective 7/1/24) | 04/17/24 |
| notes: Adds current or former status as an election official or employee of an election official to the categories of victims whose intentional selection for a hate crime involving assault, assault and battery, or trespass for the purpose of damaging another's property results in a higher criminal penalty for the offense. The bill also adds current or former status as an election official or employee of an election official to the categories of hate crimes that are to be reported to the central repository of information regarding hate crimes maintained by the Virginia State Police. The bill provides that a person who is subjected to acts of intimidation or harassment, violence directed against his person, or vandalism to his real or personal property, where such acts are motivated by current or former status as an election official or employee of an election official, may bring a civil action to recover his damages. The bill also provides that no provider or user of an interactive computer service on the Internet shall be liable for any action voluntarily taken by it in good faith to restrict access to material that the provider or user considers to be intended to incite hatred on the basis of current or former status as an election official or employee of an election official. The bill also adds to the list of protected voters any election official or employee of an election official. Protected voters are permitted by law to provide on the application for voter registration, in addition to the voter's residence street address, a post office box address located within the Commonwealth, which would be the address included on (i) lists of registered voters and persons who voted, (ii) voter registration records made available for public inspection% | |||
| SB 377 - Boysko - Campaign finance; prohibited personal use of campaign funds, complaints, hearings, civil penalty. | (H) Committee on Appropriations (S) Committee on Finance and Appropriations | (H) Continued to 2025 in Appropriations | 02/28/24 |
| notes: Prohibits any person from converting contributions to a candidate or his campaign committee to personal use. Current law only prohibits such conversion of contributions with regard to disbursement of surplus funds at the dissolution of a campaign or political committee. The bill provides that a contribution is considered to have been converted to personal use if the contribution, in whole or in part, is used to fulfill any commitment, obligation, or expense that would exist irrespective of the person's seeking, holding, or maintaining public office but allows a contribution to be used for the ordinary and accepted expenses related to campaigning for or holding elective office, including the use of campaign funds to pay for the candidate's child care expenses that are incurred as a direct result of campaign activity. The bill provides that any person subject to the personal use ban may request an advisory opinion from the State Board of Elections on such matters. The bill directs the State Board of Elections to adopt emergency regulations similar to those promulgated by the Federal Election Commission to implement the provisions of the bill and to publish an updated summary of Virginia campaign finance law that reflects the State Board of Elections' and Attorney General's guidance on the provisions of such law that prohibit the personal use of campaign funds and any new regulations promulgated by the State Board of Elections. | |||
| SB 428 - VanValkenburg - Elections; ranked choice voting, locally elected offices. | (H) Committee on Privileges and Elections (S) Committee on Finance and Appropriations | (S) Passed by for the day | 04/17/24 |
| notes: Allows elections for any local or constitutional office to be conducted by ranked choice voting. Under current law, only elections of members of a county board of supervisors or a city council are allowed to be conducted by ranked choice voting. The bill also clarifies requirements for conducting elections using ranked choice voting and requires results for elections conducted by ranked choice voting to be reported along with other results reported on election night, except that such results must clearly be identified as preliminary and based on the first rankings in a ranked choice voting election. The bill provides that final tabulation for an election for a local or constitutional office that is not shared by more than one county or city is required to be conducted on the same day as other results are canvassed by the local electoral board and that final tabulation for and election for a local or constitutional office that is shared by more than one county or city is required to be conducted at a centralized facility under the supervision of the Department of Elections. The bill specifies that ranking data is required to be made publicly available by the Department and requires the State Board of Elections to provide standards and to approve vote tabulating software for use with existing voting systems in elections conducted by ranked choice voting. The bill also limits a risk-limiting audit of an election conducted using ranked choice voting to the first choice rankings reported on voting systems. Finally, the bill directs the Department to review the testing and approval framework for voting equipment in the Commonwealth and submit a report of such review no later than the first day of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly. | |||
| SJ 2 - Locke - Constitutional amendment; qualifications of voters, right to vote, persons not entitled to vote. | (S) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (S) Continued to 2025 in Privileges and Elections (14-Y 0-N) | 01/16/24 |
| notes: Provides that every person who meets the qualifications of voters set forth in the Constitution of Virginia shall have the fundamental right to vote in the Commonwealth and that such right shall not be abridged by law, except for persons who have been convicted of a felony and persons who have been adjudicated to lack the capacity to understand the act of voting. A person who has been convicted of a felony shall not be entitled to vote during any period of incarceration for such felony conviction, but upon release from incarceration for that felony conviction and without further action required of him, such person shall be invested with all political rights, including the right to vote. Currently, in order to be qualified to vote a person convicted of a felony must have his civil rights restored by the Governor or other appropriate authority. The amendment also provides that a person adjudicated by a court of competent jurisdiction as lacking the capacity to understand the act of voting shall not be entitled to vote during this period of incapacity until his capacity has been reestablished as prescribed by law. Currently, the Constitution of Virginia provides that a person who has been adjudicated to be mentally incompetent is not qualified to vote until his competency is reestablished. | |||
| SJ 10 - Peake - Constitutional amendment; term limits for Lieutenant Governor & Attorney General (first reference). | (S) Committee on Privileges and Elections | (S) Continued to 2025 in Privileges and Elections (14-Y 0-N) | 01/16/24 |
| notes: Prohibits any person from being eligible to be elected to more than two terms as Lieutenant Governor or Attorney General. The amendments provide that service for a partial term does not preclude serving the allowed number of full terms and applies the limits to terms of service to persons elected to serve as Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General in 2029 and thereafter. | |||