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1995 SESSION

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LD7716164
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 620 Offered January 23, 1995 Proposing an amendment to Section 1 of Article II of the Constitution of Virginia, relating to the qualifications of voters. ---------- Patron--Copeland ---------- Referred to Committee on Rules ----------

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, a majority of the members elected to each house agreeing, That the following amendment to the Constitution of Virginia be, and the same hereby is, proposed and referred to the General Assembly at its first regular session held after the next general election of members of the House of Delegates for its concurrence in conformity with the provisions of Section 1 of Article XII of the Constitution of Virginia, namely:

Amend Section 1 of Article II of the Constitution of Virginia as follows:

ARTICLE II FRANCHISE AND OFFICERS Section 1. Qualifications of voters.

In elections by the people, the qualifications of voters shall be as follows: Each voter shall be a citizen of the United States, shall be eighteen years of age, shall fulfill the residence requirements set forth in this section, and shall be registered to vote pursuant to this article. No person who has been convicted of a felony shall be qualified to vote unless his civil rights have been restored by the Governor or other appropriate authority. As prescribed by law, no person adjudicated to be mentally incompetent shall be qualified to vote until his competency has been reestablished.

The residence requirements shall be that each voter shall be a resident of the Commonwealth and of the precinct where he votes. A person who is qualified to vote except for having moved his residence from one precinct to another may in the following November general election and in any intervening election vote in the precinct from which he has moved. Residence, for all purposes of qualification to vote, requires both domicile and a place of abode. The General Assembly may provide, in elections for President and Vice-President of the United States, alternatives to registration for new residents of the Commonwealth.

Notwithstanding the foregoing residence requirements, the General Assembly shall provide that overseas citizens, as defined in this paragraph, may register and vote in federal elections. "Overseas citizen" means a person who is a United States citizen otherwise qualified to vote in the Commonwealth who resides outside the United States and has never resided in the United States and who has a parent who is a qualified voter in the Commonwealth. Such overseas citizen shall be permitted to register and vote where the citizen's parent is qualified to vote. The General Assembly may provide that such overseas citizens may register and vote in other elections in the Commonwealth.

Any person who will be qualified with respect to age to vote at the next general election shall be permitted to register in advance and also to vote in any intervening primary or special election.