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2004 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections

Chairman: Stephen H. Martin

Date of Meeting: January 20, 2004

Time and Place: 4:00 p.m. -- Senate Room A

S.B. 55

Patron: Puller

Elections; activities at polling places. Authorizes the electoral board and the person in charge of the facility where a polling place is located to approve a sale of refreshments by a nonprofit, nonpartisan group within the 40-foot prohibited area at the polling place.

S.B. 126

Patron: Watkins

Virginia-North Carolina Interstate High-Speed Rail Compact. Establishes an interstate compact between Virginia and North Carolina to study, develop, and promote a plan for the design, construction, and operation of interstate high-speed rail service through and between points in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the State of North Carolina and adjacent states.

S.B. 184

Patron: Blevins

Senatorial districts. Makes a technical change in the boundary between the Fifth and Fourteenth Districts within the City of Chesapeake to eliminate a confusing situation where the Senate line follows a nonvisible precinct line. The adjustment moves the Senate line to visible roads and follows a new precinct line that the City is establishing. The two districts remain within the two percent population deviation followed in the 2001 redistricting.

S.B. 448

Patron: Rerras

Interstate Compact for the Supervision of Adult Offenders. Establishes a new interstate compact to replace the existing Compact. The former Compact (Out of State Supervision of Parolees or Probationers, 1937) will stay in effect to deal with those states that do not adopt the new Compact. The Compact takes effect on the later of July 1, 2004, or the date that 35 states adopt the Compact. Under the new Compact, an Interstate Commission is created. The Commission's duties include establishing uniform procedures to manage the movement of adult offenders under community supervision between participating states; ensuring the opportunity for input and providing a timely notice to victims and jurisdictions where offenders are authorized to travel or relocate across state lines; establishing a uniform data collection system; monitoring compliance of interstate movement of offenders and initiating interventions to address noncompliance; and coordinating training programs regarding interstate movement for officials involved in such activities. Each Compacting State is responsible for supervision of adult offenders in its communities who are authorized by the Compact to travel across state lines. Such responsibilities include tracking the location of offenders, transferring supervision, and returning offenders to originating jurisdictions. The bill also creates a council to oversee the operations of the Compact within Virginia.

S.B. 470

Patron: Ticer

Campaign finance disclosure; special reports of large contributions received by candidates for and incumbents in local offices. Requires any candidate for or incumbent in a constitutional or local office to report any contribution of more than $500 within five business days of its receipt to the local electoral board where the candidate or incumbent resides. The bill applies only to contributions received in non-election years.

S.B. 528

Patron: Hanger

Postponement of certain elections; emergency situations. Revises and provides more detail on procedures to be followed when an election is postponed pursuant to an order of the Governor due to a state of emergency.

S.B. 17

Patron: Miller

Constitutional amendment (voter referendum); restoration of civil rights for certain felons. Provides for a referendum at the November 2004 election on approval of an amendment to revise provisions concerning restoration of civil rights. The amendment authorizes the General Assembly to provide by general law for the restoration of civil rights for persons convicted of nonviolent felonies who meet the conditions prescribed by law. The present Constitution provides for restoration of rights by the Governor. The measure retains the right of the Governor to restore civil rights and adds the alternative for restoration of rights pursuant to general law for persons convicted of nonviolent felonies.

S.B. 18

Patron: O'Brien

Constitutional amendment (voter referendum); effective dates of decennial redistricting measures; vacancies. Provides for a referendum at the November 2004 election on approval of a proposed constitutional amendment to revise provisions concerning the effective date and implementation of decennial redistricting measures. The proposed amendment continues the requirement that decennial reapportionment or redistricting measures shall be enacted in the first year after the decennial census (2011, etc.). It spells out that the new lines will be implemented for the first November general election held just prior to the expiration of the term being served in the year of the redistricting. The new language, in effect, continues the existing practice and understanding that there will be regular November elections from new districts in 2011 for the House of Delegates and Senate, in 2012 for the United States House of Representatives, in 2021 for the House of Delegates, in 2022 for the House of Representatives, in 2023 for the Senate, and so forth. It further provides explicitly that the members in office when a decennial reapportionment law is enacted shall complete their terms of office and continue to represent the districts from which they were elected for the duration of those terms of office.

Another new provision specifies that any vacancy occurring during such terms will be filled from the preexisting district, i.e., the same district that elected the member whose vacancy is being filled.

The proposed amendment continues the present provision that reapportionment laws take effect "immediately" without being subject to the usual requirement for a four-fifths vote in each house of the General Assembly to approve an emergency measure. This exception to the emergency vote requirement remains necessary. There is usually only a short time available to draw new lines after the release of census redistricting data early in the year following the census, and before the nomination and election timetable begins for that year's November election.

If approved by the voters, the amendment will take effect January 1, 2005.

S.J.R. 4

Patron: Miller

Constitutional amendment (second resolution); restoration of civil rights for certain felons. Authorizes the General Assembly to provide by general law for the restoration of civil rights for persons convicted of nonviolent felonies who meet the conditions prescribed by law. The present Constitution provides for restoration of rights by the Governor. The amendment retains the right of the Governor to restore civil rights and adds the alternative for restoration of rights pursuant to general law for persons convicted of nonviolent felonies.

S.J.R. 6

Patron: O'Brien

Constitutional amendment (second resolution); effective dates of decennial redistricting measures; vacancies. Continues the requirement that decennial reapportionment or redistricting measures shall be enacted in the first year after the decennial census (2011, etc.). The proposed amendment spells out that the new lines will be implemented for the first November general election held just prior to the expiration of the term being served in the year of the redistricting. The new language, in effect, continues the existing practice and understanding that there will be regular November elections from new districts in 2011 for the House of Delegates and Senate, in 2012 for the United States House of Representatives, in 2021 for the House of Delegates, in 2022 for the House of Representatives, in 2023 for the Senate, and so forth. The proposed amendment further provides explicitly that the members in office when a decennial reapportionment law is enacted shall complete their terms of office and continue to represent the districts from which they were elected for the duration of those terms of office.

Another new provision specifies that any vacancy occurring during such terms will be filled from the preexisting district, i.e., the same district that elected the member whose vacancy is being filled.

The proposed amendment continues the present provision that reapportionment laws take effect "immediately" without being subject to the usual requirement for a four-fifths vote in each house of the General Assembly to approve an emergency measure. This exception to the emergency vote requirement remains necessary. There is usually only a short time available to draw new lines after the release of census redistricting data early in the year following the census, and before the nomination and election timetable begins for that year's November election.

S.B. 33

Patron: Potts

Primaries for statewide offices. Requires political party candidates for the offices of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General to be nominated by a statewide primary.

S.B. 268

Patron: Potts

Campaign Finance Disclosure Act; in-kind contributions and penalties. Requires written authorization by a candidate for in-kind contributions to the candidate in support of his campaign. The bill also provides for the assessment of a civil penalty of $50,000 for any failure to report the making or receipt of an in-kind contribution with a value of $1,000 or more and for public notice of the failure and of the identity of the candidate, person, or committee involved.

S.B. 286

Patron: O'Brien

Persons entitled to have name printed on ballot. Provides that a person may have his name on the ballot for only one office at any one election. Present law allows a person to run for two offices simultaneously.

S.B. 359

Patron: Colgan

Distribution of information on local referenda. Allows local governing bodies to disseminate neutral explanations of pending local referenda by any means, not just by publication or printing. The bill deletes the limitation on the length of the explanation to 500 or fewer words.

S.B. 574

Patron: Obenshain

Referendum in Page County on election of the county chairman from the county at large. Provides that the circuit court of the County shall order a referendum on the question of whether there should be a chairman of the county board of supervisors elected at large. If a majority of the qualified voters voting in such referendum vote in favor of the election of a county chairman of the board of supervisors from the county at large, beginning at the next general election for the board of supervisors, the county chairman shall be elected for a term of four years.