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2021 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections

Chair: R. Creigh Deeds

Clerk: John Garrett
Staff: Brooks Braun
Date of Meeting: January 26, 2021
Time and Place: 15 mins aft adj. SR W Register to speak @ Va Gen Assembly website
https://virginia-senate.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=3

S.J.R. 327

Patron: Deeds

Confirming Governor's appointments; January 24. Confirms appointments of certain persons made by Governor Ralph Northam and communicated to the General Assembly January 24, 2021.

S.B. 1101

Patrons: Ebbin, Lucas

Presidential electors; National Popular Vote Compact. Enters Virginia into an interstate compact known as the Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by National Popular Vote. Article II of the Constitution of the United States gives the states exclusive and plenary authority to decide the manner of awarding their electoral votes. Under the compact, Virginia agrees to award its electoral votes to the presidential ticket that receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The compact goes into effect when states cumulatively possessing a majority of the electoral votes have joined the compact. A state may withdraw from the compact; however, a withdrawal occurring within six months of the end of a President's term shall not become effective until a President or Vice President has qualified to serve the next term.

S.B. 1118

Patron: Peake


Voter registration; verification of social security numbers; provisional registration status. Requires the general registrars to verify that the name, date of birth, and social security number provided by an applicant on the voter registration application match the information on file in the Social Security Administration database or other database approved by the State Board of Elections (the State Board) before registering such applicant. If the information provided by the applicant does not match the information in such database, the applicant (i) is provisionally registered to vote and notified as to what steps are needed to be fully registered to vote and (ii) is permitted to vote by provisional ballot but such ballot shall not be counted until the voter presents certain information. The bill also requires the general registrars to verify annually no later than August 1 that the name, date of birth, and social security number in the registration record of each registered voter in the registrar's jurisdiction match the information on file with the Social Security Administration or other database approved by the State Board and, in accordance with current law, to initiate the cancellation of the registration of any voter whose registration record information does not match the database information. The State Board is authorized to approve the use of any government database to the extent required to enable each general registrar to carry out the provisions of this bill and to promulgate rules for the use of such database. The Department of Elections is required to provide to the general registrars access to the Social Security Administration database and any other database approved by the State Board. The Department of Elections is further required to enter into any agreement with any federal or state agency to facilitate such access. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2023.

S.B. 1148

Patron: Kiggans

Elections; date of June primary election. Changes the date of the primary election held in June from the second Tuesday in June to the third Tuesday in June. The bill also changes candidate filing deadlines to reflect the change of date. The bill satisfies the reenactment requirement of Chapter 1253 of the Acts of Assembly of 2020.

S.B. 1153

Patron: Suetterlein

Elections; absentee voting; ballots to be sorted and results to be reported by precinct. Provides that absentee ballots processed at a central absentee precinct must be sorted by the precinct to which the voter who cast the absentee ballot is assigned and that the resulting vote totals from such ballots must be reported separately for each voter precinct.

S.B. 1245

Patron: Deeds


Absentee voting; establishment of drop-off locations; ballot defects; cure process. Requires the establishment of a drop-off location for the return of marked absentee ballots at the office of the general registrar and each voter satellite office. On the day of any election, a drop-off location shall be available at each polling place in operation for such election. The bill allows the general registrar of any county or city to establish additional drop-off locations within the county or city as he deems necessary. The Department of Elections is required to set standards related to the establishment and operation of drop-off locations, including security requirements. The bill also requires general registrars to take certain actions to preprocess absentee ballots returned before election day and to notify an absentee voter of any errors or issues with the completion or return of his absentee ballot that would render the ballot void. The general registrars are required to enter into the voter's record in the registration system that the voter's absentee ballot has an issue requiring correction and to notify the voter in writing or by email of the error or failure, in addition to providing information on how to correct the issue. The absentee voter then has until noon on the third day following the election to make necessary corrections so that his ballot may be counted. This ballot cure process applies only to those absentee ballots received by the Friday immediately preceding the day of the election. The bill contains technical amendments for organizational purposes.

S.B. 1246

Patron: Deeds

Absentee voting; mandatory processing of returned absentee ballots before election day; central absentee voter precinct in the office of the general registrar. Requires certain actions to be taken to process absentee ballots that are returned by mail before election day. The general registrar is required to examine the ballot envelopes to verify completion of the required voter affirmation; mark the pollbook, or the absentee voter applicant list if the pollbook is not available, that the voter has voted; and open the sealed ballot envelopes and insert the ballots in optical scan counting equipment or other secure ballot container without initiating any ballot count totals. Under current law, it is only required that the general registrar undertake at least one such activity before election day. To facilitate this preprocessing, the bill requires a central absentee voter precinct to be established in the office of the general registrar. Additional central absentee voter precincts may be established at the discretion of the governing body.

S.B. 1331

Patron: Reeves

Absentee voting; accessibility for voters with a visual impairment or print disability. Requires the Department of Elections to make available to all localities a tool to allow voters with a visual impairment or print disability to electronically and accessibly receive and mark his absentee ballot using screen reader assistive technology. On receipt of an application for an absentee ballot from an applicant who indicates that he will require assistance due to a visual impairment or print disability, the general registrar is required to offer to provide to the applicant the ballot marking tool with screen reader assistive technology.

S.B. 1348

Patron: Newman

Elections; referenda; local advisory referenda. Provides for an exception to the rule that prohibits a referendum from being placed on the ballot unless specifically authorized by statute or by charter, allowing each locality to provide by ordinance a process for holding an advisory referendum provided such advisory referendum is placed on the ballot not more than once per calendar year.

S.B. 1376

Patron: Saslaw

Absentee voting; processing of absentee ballots before election day; reporting of absentee ballot vote totals; central absentee voter precincts. Requires certain actions to be taken to process absentee ballots returned before the day of the election, including opening sealed ballot envelopes and inserting the ballot into a ballot container or counting machine. The bill requires the establishment of a central absentee voter precinct in each locality; currently, establishment is optional. On the day of the election, officers of election are required to begin processing absentee ballots in the central absentee voter precincts prior to the close of the polls but that no ballot vote counts are permitted to be transmitted outside of the central absentee voter precinct before the close of the polls; a violation of such prohibition is a Class 1 misdemeanor. When reporting election results to the Department of Elections, the general registrars are required to report absentee ballots cast early in person separately from all other absentee ballots. The bill contains technical amendments for organizational and readability purposes.

S.B. 1377

Patron: Suetterlein

Campaign finance; special report for large pre-legislative session contributions; contributions in aggregate. Requires a special report for certain pre-legislative session contributions from a single person in excess of $1,000 or with an aggregate value in excess of $1,000. Currently, such special reports are required only for individual contributions in excess of $1,000.

S.B. 1395

Patron: McClellan


Elections; prohibited discrimination in voting and elections administration; required process for enacting certain covered practices; civil causes of action. Prohibits any voting qualification or any standard, practice, or procedure related to voting from being imposed or applied in a manner that results in the denial or abridgment of the right of any United States citizen to vote based on his race or color or membership in a language minority group. The bill further prohibits at-large methods of election from being imposed or applied in a locality in a manner that impairs the ability of a protected class, defined in the bill, to elect candidates of its choice or to influence the outcome of an election, by diluting or abridging the rights of voters who are members of a protected class. Prior to enacting or administering a covered practice, defined in the bill, the governing body of a locality is required to publish the proposed covered practice and accept public comment for a minimum of 30 days on the proposed covered practice; after the public comment period, a 30-day waiting period is required. During this period, any person who will be subject to or affected by the covered practice may challenge the covered practice as (i) having the purpose or effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on the basis of race or color or membership in a language minority group or (ii) resulting in the retrogression in the position of members of a racial or ethnic group with respect to their effective exercise of the electoral franchise. The bill permits the local governing body to instead submit the proposed covered practice to the Office of the Attorney General for issuance of a certification of no objection and, once such certification is issued, to enact or administer the covered practice. Certain unlawful actions, including knowingly communicating false information to voters, that are currently subject to criminal penalties will create civil causes of action under the bill. Current provisions related to language minority accessibility are moved to a newly created chapter relating to the rights of voters.

S.B. 1422

Patron: Kiggans

Voter registration; list maintenance; lists of decedents transmitted by State Registrar of Vital Records. Requires the State Registrar of Vital Records to transmit to the Department of Elections a weekly list of decedents from the previous week. Currently, this list is transmitted monthly. The bill requires the general registrars to use this information to conduct list maintenance and to promptly cancel the registration of a person on the list.

S.B. 1444

Patron: Saslaw

Filing of campaign finance reports.

S.B. 1455

Patron: Ruff

Absentee ballots; witness requirement; printed name and residence address. Requires that a witness to a voter's absentee ballot provide, in addition to his signature, his printed name and residence address.

S.B. 1459

Patron: Norment


Conduct of elections; voter identification and absentee voting; process for applying for, casting, and counting absentee ballots. Requires presentation of a form of identification containing a photograph in order to vote. The bill eliminates current provisions permitting a voter who does not have one of the required forms of identification to vote after signing a statement, subject to felony penalties for false statements, that he is the named registered voter he claims to be. Instead, such voter would be entitled to cast a provisional ballot. The bill prohibits absentee ballots from being returned to any location that is not located in the office of the general registrar, including drop boxes located outside of such locations. The bill provides that no waiver of the absentee ballot envelope witness signature shall be permitted under any circumstances and requires absentee ballots to have, in addition to the witness signature, the witness's printed name and residence address. The bill also requires certain actions to be taken to process absentee ballots that are returned by mail before election day. The general registrar is required to examine the ballot envelopes to verify completion of the required voter affirmation; mark the pollbook, or the absentee voter applicant list if the pollbook is not available, that the voter has voted; and open the sealed ballot envelopes and insert the ballots in optical scan counting equipment or other secure ballot container without initiating any ballot count totals. Current law requires only that the general registrar undertake at least one such activity before election day. So that ballots can be separated from ballot envelopes and scanned, the bill requires that the office of the general registrar be used as a central absentee voter precinct. Absentee ballots processed at any central absentee voter precinct are required to be sorted by the precinct to which the voter who cast the absentee ballot is assigned and that the resulting vote totals from such ballots be reported separately for each voter precinct.