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2018 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections

Chairman: Jill Holtzman Vogel

Clerk: Hobie Lehman
Staff: Meg Lamb
Date of Meeting: February 20, 2018
Time and Place: 15 minutes upon adjournment of Senate / Senate Rm 3, The Capitol

H.B. 28

Patron: Cole

Voter registration list maintenance; due date of annual report. Clarifies that the annual report made by the Department of Elections on its activities undertaken to maintain the Virginia voter registration system is due by October 1. The bill further clarifies that information regarding the Department's list maintenance activities arising out of list comparisons with other states is to be included in this annual report.

H.B. 71

Patron: Miyares

Constitutional amendment (voter referendum); real property tax exemption for surviving spouses of certain disabled veterans. Provides for a referendum at the November 6, 2018, election to approve or reject an amendment to the real property tax exemption for a primary residence that is currently provided to the surviving spouses of veterans who had a one hundred percent service-connected, permanent, and total disability to allow the surviving spouse to move to a different principal place of residence. Similar real property tax exemptions provided in the Constitution of Virginia to (i) the surviving spouses of members of the armed forces killed in action and (ii) the surviving spouses of certain emergency services providers killed in the line of duty allow the surviving spouse to move to a different principal place of residence and still claim the tax exemption.

H.B. 158

Patron: Cole

House of Delegates and Senate district boundaries. Authorizes the General Assembly to make technical adjustments to legislative district boundaries subsequent to the decennial redistricting solely for the purpose of causing legislative district boundaries to coincide with local voting precinct boundaries. Any adjustment shall change districts only to the extent necessary to accomplish this purpose and shall be consistent with the criteria for districts established for the preceding decennial redistricting.

H.B. 397

Patron: Keam

Absentee voting; certain information not required when completing application in person. Provides that a person completing an application for an absentee ballot in person is not required to provide the last four digits of his social security number on the application.

H.B. 427

Patron: Marshall

Filling vacancies in the United States Senate. Removes the language limiting the date at which a special election can be held to fill a vacancy occurring in the representation of the Commonwealth in the United States Senate. Currently, when such a vacancy occurs, the date for the special election to fill the vacancy is either the next November general election or the second next November general election. Current law also gives the Governor the authority to make a temporary appointment to fill such a vacancy; the bill removes that authority. The bill allows the Governor to immediately issue a writ to call an election upon receipt of written notification by a Senator or Senator-elect of his resignation, rather than wait for the vacancy to actually occur, and makes the Senator's or Senator-elect's resignation irrevocable after the date stated by him for his resignation or after the forty-fifth day before the date set for the special election.

H.B. 690

Patron: Simon

General registrars; residency requirement; exemption for certain counties and cities. Exempts counties and cities with a population of 15,000 or less from the requirement that a person appointed to serve as a general registrar must be a qualified voter of the county or city for which he is appointed.

H.B. 734

Patron: LaRock

Constitutional amendment (ballot bill); special funds for transportation purposes. Provides for a referendum at the November 6, 2018, general election to approve or reject an amendment to the Constitution that would require the General Assembly to maintain permanent and separate Transportation Funds. The amendment directs that revenues dedicated to Transportation Funds on January 1, 2018, by general law, other than a general appropriation law, shall be deposited to the Transportation Funds, unless the General Assembly by general law, other than a general appropriation law, alters the revenues dedicated to the Funds. The amendment limits the use of Funds moneys to transportation and related purposes. The amendment specifies that the General Assembly may borrow from the Funds for other purposes only by an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house and that the loan must be repaid with reasonable interest within four years.

H.B. 767

Patron: Jones, S.C.

Election precincts not to be changed between certain dates. Prohibits counties, cities, and towns from creating, dividing, abolishing, or consolidating any precincts or otherwise changing the boundaries of any precinct between February 1, 2019, and May 15, 2021, except in certain specified circumstances. Precinct ordinances may be adopted after January 1, 2021, but may not be implemented before May 15, 2021.

H.B. 1144

Patron: Wilt

Voter registration; persons assisting with the completion or collection of completed voter registration applications; certain identifying information required. Requires any person who assists an applicant with the completion of a voter registration application or collects a completed voter registration application directly from an applicant to sign and print his name, provide his telephone number, and indicate the group or organization he is affiliated with, if any, on the registration application. The provisions of the bill do not apply to any state or local government employee acting in his official capacity.

H.B. 1167

Patron: LaRock

Jury commissioners; lists of unqualified persons provided to general registrars. Requires jury commissioners to collect the information obtained from those persons not qualified to serve as jurors as a result of (i) not being a citizen of the United States, (ii) no longer being a resident of the Commonwealth, (iii) being a resident of another county or city in the Commonwealth, (iv) having been convicted of a felony and not having had voting rights restored, or (v) having been adjudicated incapacitated and disqualified to vote and not having had voting rights restored. The bill requires the sheriff, clerk of court, or other official responsible for maintaining such information provided by the commissioners to make that information available to the general registrar for that locality. The bill also requires the general registrars to use the information received to identify voters who are no longer qualified to vote and to initiate list maintenance procedures pursuant to current law. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2019.

H.B. 1210

Patron: Hugo

Post-election audits. Defines "post-election audit" to mean a process conducted after an election to confirm the accurate reporting of the results of the election and directs the State Board of Elections to establish a work group tasked with developing standards and procedures for conducting post-election audits in the Commonwealth. The work group is required, at a minimum, to (i) consider the types of post-election audits available and being implemented in other states, (ii) recommend the type of post-election audit to be used in the Commonwealth, (iii) establish the process and procedures for conducting the recommended post-election audit, including the timeline, (iv) recommend actions to be taken if the post-election audit results indicate that the voting systems did not accurately count the ballots cast in the election, and (v) propose legislation for implementing the work group's recommendations. The work group is directed to submit an interim progress report by January 7, 2019, and a final report by December 1, 2019, to the Governor and the General Assembly. The bill repeals the current law regarding post-election risk-limiting audits.

H.B. 1325

Patron: Cole

Provisional voting; persons voting in split precincts. Provides that any voter who is assigned to a precinct that is split between two or more election districts and who believes he was given a ballot for the district of which he is not a qualified voter may request, prior to casting the ballot, and shall be permitted to cast a provisional ballot for the district of which he believes he is a qualified voter and for the district in which the pollbook indicates he is registered. The bill requires the ballots to be sealed in envelopes labeled with the corresponding district number and then sealed in the green envelope provided for all provisional ballots. At the meeting to determine the validity of all provisional ballots offered in the election, the electoral board shall verify which district the voter is a qualified voter of and count that ballot.

H.B. 1405

Patron: Ransone

State Board of Elections; membership; appointment of Commissioner of Elections. Increases the membership of the State Board of Elections (Board) from three members to six members and increases the terms of Board members from four years to six years. Equal representation shall be given to each of the political parties having the highest and next highest number of votes in the Commonwealth at the last preceding gubernatorial election. Appointments are to be made with due consideration of geographical representation and no two Board members are to reside in the same congressional district. Terms are initially staggered. The bill also grants to the Board the authority to appoint and remove the Commissioner of Elections, subject to confirmation by the General Assembly, to head the Department of Elections and to act as the principal administrative officer. The appointment or removal of the Commissioner shall require an affirmative vote of five of the six Board members. The bill requires the Board to submit an annual report to the Governor and the General Assembly. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2019.

H.B. 1424

Patron: Simon

Recounts; number permitted; tie votes. Provides that if, after a recount of an election, the recount court finds that each party to the recount has received an equal number of votes, it shall direct a determination by lot, but that no right to a recount shall be permitted. A candidate who loses a determination by lot following a recount may contest the election. The bill prohibits more than one recount of any election.

H.B. 1598

Patron: Jones, S.C.

Standards and criteria for congressional and state legislative districts. Provides criteria by which congressional and state legislative districts are to be drawn, including equal population, racial and ethnic fairness, respect for existing political boundaries, contiguity, compactness, and communities of interest. The criteria set out would apply to those districts drawn following the 2020 United States Census and thereafter.

H.J.R. 6

Patron: Miyares

Constitutional amendment (second resolution); real property tax; exemption for surviving spouse of a disabled veteran. Provides that the real property tax exemption for the principal residence of the surviving spouse of a disabled military veteran applies without any restriction on the surviving spouse's moving to a different principal place of residence.

H.J.R. 41

Patron: LaRock

Constitutional amendment (second resolution); Transportation Funds. Requires the General Assembly to maintain permanent and separate Transportation Funds to include the Commonwealth Transportation Fund, Transportation Trust Fund, Highway Maintenance and Operating Fund, and other funds established by general law for transportation. The amendment directs that revenues dedicated to Transportation Funds on January 1, 2018, by general law, other than a general appropriation law, shall be deposited to the Transportation Funds, unless the General Assembly by general law, other than a general appropriation law, alters the revenues dedicated to the Funds. The amendment limits the use of Funds moneys to transportation and related purposes. The amendment specifies that the General Assembly may borrow from the Funds for other purposes only by an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house and that the loan must be repaid with reasonable interest within four years.

S.J.R. 133

Patron: Vogel


Confirming Governor's appointment; February 2. Confirms the appointment of an agency head made by Governor Ralph Northam and communicated to the General Assembly February 2, 2018.