General Assembly>Division of Legislative Services>Publications>Session Summaries>2004>Elections

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Elections

Passed

P HB316

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. This bill is identical to SB 184.
Patron - Cosgrove

P HB317

House of Delegates districts. Makes a technical change in the boundary between the Forty-seventh and Forty-ninth Districts within Arlington County to place all of the Barcroft Precinct in the Forty-seventh district. The precinct was divided between the two districts in the 2001 redistricting plan. The population deviation for both districts remains within the two percent guideline applied in the 2001 redistricting. This bill incorporates HB 816.
Patron - Ebbin

P HB373

Distribution of information on local referenda. Authorizes local governing bodies of counties and cities to disseminate neutral explanations of pending local referenda at polling places and by publication one or more times before the election. The explanation is limited to 500 or fewer words. In addition, the bill provides that this authorization shall not be construed as a limitation on the dissemination of other neutral materials or advertisements on issues of public concern that are the subject of a referendum and that do not advocate passage or defeat of the referendum. This bill is identical to SB 359.
Patron - Lingamfelter

P HB410

Post-election procedures and securing of election equipment and materials. Applies to localities that have opted to have election materials delivered after the election to the office of the general registrar rather than to the clerk of the circuit court. The bill provides that voting equipment keys, including electronic locking devices, and other election materials shall be secured and retained by the general registrar and then delivered to the clerk of the circuit court by noon of the day following the day that the electoral board ascertains the results of the election rather than by noon of the day following the election.
Patron - Welch

P HB411

Duties of State Board of Elections; electronic pollbooks. Authorizes the State Board to provide a regional or statewide list of registered voters to those localities using electronic pollbooks or using electronic devices at polling place to check voter registration information.
Patron - Welch

P HB604

Voter registration applications and records. Permits a person, who signs a statement that he is in fear for his personal safety from another party who has threatened or stalked him, to provide a post office box address, either for his residence or another location in the Commonwealth. The statement must be accompanied by evidence that the person has filed a complaint with a law-enforcement official in connection with the threat or stalking. The bill also excludes the residence address for these voters from publicly available lists of registered voters and persons voting and from the scope of the public inspection provisions on voter registration records.
Patron - Gear

P HB682

Campaign Finance Disclosure Act; information required of candidates, campaign committees, and other persons and committees. Deletes the requirement, or possibility of an administratively mandated requirement, that campaign committees and other persons and committees provide the account number for the depository account for campaign or committee funds. The law would continue to require the name of the financial institution where the account is held.
Patron - Rapp

P HB767

Elections; requirements for polling places. Authorizes the distribution on election day of campaign materials on the property where a polling place is located, except to the extent prohibited by law. For example, § 24.2-604 prohibits the distribution of campaign materials within 40 feet of the entrance to a polling place.
Patron - Hurt

P HB837

Voting equipment and technology and related election law offenses; penalties. Incorporates a number of changes in current law provisions on voting equipment and related offenses to cover new developments in voting technology, software, programming and related security and operations issues. As passed, this bill is similar to SB 313 except that this bill contains a provision prohibiting the removal of inoperative voting equipment from a polling place on election day unless the removal is explicitly authorized by statute.
Patron - Brink

P HB850

Campaign Finance Disclosure Act; filing schedules. Provides that candidates for public office who have not filed a final report closing their past campaign are required to file reports on an election year schedule in succeeding election years for the same office. The bill also provides for semi-annual nonelection-year reports in municipal elections and clarifies reporting requirements pertaining to certain last-minute pre-election expenditures by persons and committees other than candidates.
Patron - Jones, S.C.

P HB908

Senatorial and House of Delegates districts. Makes adjustments to the Tenth and Fifteenth Senatorial district boundaries in Cumberland County and to the Twenty-fifth and Fifty-ninth House of Delegates district boundaries in Albemarle County and the Fifty-ninth and Sixtieth House of Delegates district boundaries in Prince Edward County in order to eliminate split precincts. The adjustments place the population deviations of the Tenth Senatorial district and the Twenty-fifth House of Delegates district slightly in excess of the two percent deviation followed in the 2001 redistricting plans.
Patron - Abbitt

P HB986

Voting equipment at the polling place. Provides that voting and counting equipment, including inoperative equipment, must remain in plain view of the officers of election and in the polling place during the election and through the determination of the vote after the polls close. The bill provides for use of easily portable electronic voting devices for curbside voting under certain conditions. This bill is identical to SB 94.
Patron - Hugo

P HB1026

Campaign Finance Disclosure Act; disclosure requirements for political campaign advertisements. Includes various revisions, including revisions to definitions, filing requirements, and enforcement provisions. This bill incorporates HB 1253.
Patron - Albo

P HB1191

Campaign finance disclosure; reporting requirements; certain exempt political party committees. Raises from $10,000 to $15,000 the annual amount of contributions or expenditures that triggers the requirement for certain local political party committees to file periodic campaign finance disclosure reports. The bill also deletes the requirement that the State Board of Elections adjust the trigger amount annually for inflation.
Patron - Scott, J.M.

P HB1266

Voter registrars; appointment, term, and removal. Provides for an annual performance review by each local electoral board beginning with the year ending June 30, 2006, of the work of the general registrar using the format and forms developed by the State Board of Elections in consultation with representatives of the Virginia Electoral Board Association and Voter Registrars Association of Virginia and available by July 1, 2005. The bill provides for terms of general registrars to begin July 1 rather than April 1. It also clarifies provisions pertaining to the removal of a general registrar by the local electoral board and on petition of the State Board of Elections to the circuit court in certain situations. This bill is identical to SB 215.
Patron - Jones, S.C.

P HB1320

House of Delegates districts. Makes a technical adjustment in the boundary between the Eighty-seventh and Ninetieth House of Delegates districts within the City of Norfolk by moving one census block in order to eliminate a split precinct. Both districts remain within the two percent population deviation established for the 2001 redistricting plan.
Patron - Drake

P HB1321

Campaign Finance Disclosure Act; required filings and penalties. Provides for a civil penalty of up to $500 for the failure to file, or the late filing, of candidate or committee statements of organization. The bill also gives the State Board of Elections or local election official 14 days, rather than seven days, to notify the filer of a campaign disclosure report that the report is incomplete and requires additional information.
Patron - Brink

P HB1340

Voting by persons under age 18. Clarifies that persons who will be 18 by the November presidential election may vote in the presidential primary (and other primaries held on the date of the presidential primary) held in advance of the presidential election. The bill restates the current law that is set out in the provisions on presidential primaries and adds this provision to the laws on voter registration.
Patron - Alexander

P HB1363

Campaign advertisement requirements; requirements for radio and television advertisements. Provides that the additional disclosure statement required for candidate-sponsored radio and television advertisements that "I am (or "This is ..........) [name of candidate], candidate for [name of] office, and I (or 'my campaign') sponsored this ad." will not apply to advertisements that support the sponsoring candidate and that do not identify or make reference to any other clearly identified candidate. The bill also permits candidates and candidate campaign committees to use the phrase "Authorized by" as an alternative to the phrase "Paid for by" in the legend that is part of the basic requirements for all campaign advertisements.
Patron - Jones, S.C.

P HB1427

Senate and House of Delegates districts. Makes adjustments in the boundaries between the Thirty-eighth and Fortieth Senatorial districts and the First and Second Delegate districts in Wise County in order to eliminate a split precinct and between the Sixth and Seventh Delegate districts in Pulaski County to follow local election district lines. The First District population deviation after the adjustment will be -2.3 percent, greater than the two percent deviation followed in the 2001 redistricting plan.
Patron - Phillips

P SB94

P SB184

P SB215

P SB286

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. However, the bill allows a candidate for federal or statewide office, or a candidate for an office being filled in a special election, to have his name printed on the ballot for two offices at an election. Present law allows a person to run for two offices simultaneously in all situations.
Patron - O'Brien

P SB313

Voting equipment and technology and related election law offenses; penalties. Incorporates a number of changes in current law provisions on voting equipment and related offenses to cover new developments in voting technology, software, programming and related security and operations issues. As passed, this bill is similar to HB 837 except that HB 837 contains a provision prohibiting the removal of inoperative voting equipment from a polling place on election day unless the removal is explicitly authorized by statute.
Patron - Howell

P SB359

P SB457

Electronic voting systems. Requires that electronic voting devices be equipped to provide an opportunity for the voter to correct any error in his vote before a permanent record is preserved.
Patron - Whipple

P SB462

Election laws; implementation of Help America Vote Act. Provides for implementation of the Act with respect to voter registration, identification and provisional voting; absentee voting for military and overseas voters; and recounts.
Patron - Whipple

P SB470

Campaign finance disclosure; special reports of large contributions received by members of boards of supervisors and city and town councils. Requires an incumbent member to report any single contribution, or aggregate contributions from a single donor, of more than $500 within five business days of receipt to the local electoral board where the incumbent resides. The bill applies only to contributions received in nonelection years.
Patron - Ticer

P SB528

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.
Patron - Hanger

Failed

F HB21

Electoral College. Provides that the Commonwealth's votes in the Electoral College shall be allocated by the popular vote statewide and in each congressional district. The candidates for President and Vice President who win the popular statewide vote will receive the votes of the two statewide electors and the candidate who wins the popular vote in each congressional district will receive the vote of that district's elector. Maine and Nebraska allocate electoral college votes in this manner. This bill is identical to HB 398.
Patron - Scott, J.M.

F HB102

Virginia voter registration cards. Provides that the cards are issued for the information of the voter and are not to be used as evidence of identity or residence for firearms transfers, in-state tuition privileges, insurance agents' licenses, or driver's licenses. The bill preserves the use of the cards for certain election law purposes such as evidence of registration and identity at the polls on election day.
Patron - Cole

F HB398

F HB400

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. This bill is identical to SB 55.
Patron - Amundson

F HB418

Primary elections; voter registration by political party; penalty. Adds party affiliation to the information that an applicant is asked to provide when registering to vote. The applicant may indicate that he is an independent. Voters registered prior to January 1, 2005, will be designated as independent unless they provide a political party designation in writing to the general registrar. Voters may change their party affiliation or independent status by written notice at any time except the 28 days before an election when the registration records are closed. The state party chairman of each political party must notify the State Board by January 31 of each year of the party rules governing who may participate in the party primary. This bill is identical to SBs 265 and 567.
Patron - Lingamfelter

F HB680

Instructions for compliance with the disclosure requirements for political campaign advertisements. Requires the State Board of Elections to provide instructions for compliance with disclosure requirements to be available in printed form on request and to be posted on its official website. The instructions shall be reviewed by the Office of the Attorney General for accuracy and completeness.
Patron - Rapp

F HB799

Expert review of voting devices and systems. Requires the State Board of Elections to have a panel of experts review, and report on, the accuracy and security of voting devices and systems in use in Virginia and proposed for use in Virginia.
Patron - Petersen

F HB816

House of Delegates districts. Makes a technical change in the boundary between the Forty-seventh and Forty-ninth districts within Arlington County to place all of the Barcroft Precinct in the Forty-seventh district. The precinct was divided between the two districts in the 2001 redistricting plan. The population deviation for both districts remains within the two percent guideline applied in the 2001 redistricting. This bill is incorporated into HB 317.
Patron - Eisenberg

F HB915

Elections; absentee voting procedures. Provides that the general registrar or electoral board shall not reject an absentee ballot solely because of an error or omission made by the voter in his residence address stated on the absentee ballot return envelope so long as the address can be verified through the records of the Virginia voter registration system.
Patron - Phillips

F HB956

Instant runoff voting to elect candidates to local governing bodies and school boards. Authorizes the governing body of any county or city to provide by ordinance for the instant runoff voting method of determining winners in elections for the governing body or school board. The method produces a majority winner in a single election by simulating a series of runoff elections. All first choices are counted, and if any candidate receives a majority of first choices, that candidate is elected. If no candidate receives a majority, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and all ballots are recounted as one vote for each voter's highest-ranked candidate who has not been eliminated. The process of eliminating candidates and recounting ballots continues until one candidate receives a majority.
Patron - Barlow

F HB992

Party designations on the ballot. Extends to local constitutional officers (the clerk of the circuit court, attorney for the Commonwealth, sheriff, commissioner of the revenue, and treasurer) the provision that candidates nominated by a political party will be identified by party name on the ballot. Current law provides for party identification of candidates on ballots only for federal, statewide, and General Assembly elections. The bill explicitly provides that an endorsement by a political party of a candidate who qualifies for the ballot through the petition process is not grounds for identifying that candidate by the party's name. The provision for party identification on the ballot does not apply to members of local governing bodies, school boards, and soil and water conservation districts.
Patron - Hugo

F HB999

Voter registration; indication of political party affiliation. Adds party affiliation to the information that an applicant is asked to provide when registering to vote on and after July 1, 2006. The applicant may indicate that he is an independent. Voters registered prior to July 1, 2006, will be designated as independent unless they provide a political party designation in writing to the general registrar. Voters may change their party affiliation or independent status by written notice at any time except during the 28 days before an election when the registration records are closed. The bill does not change Virginia's present primary laws, and all registered voters remain eligible to participate in the primaries of any political party.
Patron - Hugo

F HB1017

Absentee ballot applications. Provides for the submission of applications for absentee ballots to local registrars through the official website of the State Board of Elections. The online application will contain all the information of the standard application, except for the signature requirement, plus a field for the applicant's e-mail address. The information provided by the applicant is subject to felony penalties for false statements. The State Board website will e-mail the application automatically to the appropriate local registrar and generate an e-mail confirmation of receipt of the application to the applicant.
Patron - Dillard

F HB1097

Redistricting commission and process. Establishes a redistricting commission to prepare state legislative and congressional redistricting plans; spells out standards for developing plans; and provides for General Assembly action on plans submitted by the commission.
Patron - Moran

F HB1167

Taking of office following certain vacancies. Applies to situations in which a person is elected to a full term in an office at the regular general election for the office, there is a vacancy in that office not subject to being filled by a special election or by appointment, and there are 90 or fewer days remaining in the term of that vacancy. The bill provides that the person elected for the full term may take office early and fill the vacancy for the remainder of that term.
Patron - Frederick

F HB1253

Campaign finance disclosure; record retention requirements. Requires State Board of Elections and local boards to retain records for a candidate, who has not filed a final report and seeks election to the same office in a successive election, through the next general election for the office to which they pertain. This bill is incorporated into HB 1026.
Patron - O'Bannon

F HB1282

Virginia voter registration cards. Provides that the cards are issued for the information of the voter and are not to be used as evidence of identity or residence for in-state tuition privileges, insurance agents' licenses, or driver's licenses. The bill preserves the use of the cards for certain election law purposes such as evidence of registration and identity at the polls on election day and other purposes specifically authorized by law.
Patron - Cole

F SB33

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.
Patron - Potts

F SB55

F SB142

Voting equipment at the polling place. Provides that voting and counting equipment, including inoperative equipment, must remain in plain view of the officers of election and in the polling place during the election and through the determination of the vote after the polls close. This bill is identical to SB 94 and HB 986 and is incorporated into SB 94.
Patron - Cuccinelli

F SB243

Party designations on the ballot. Extends to local elections, other than school board and soil and water conservation district elections, the identification of candidates by party name on the ballot. Current law provides for party identification of candidates on ballots only for federal, statewide, and General Assembly elections. The bill also allows any locality to provide by charter or by ordinance for nonpartisan elections for the governing body without any party identification on the ballot for governing body candidates. The bill explicitly provides that an endorsement by a political party of a candidate who qualifies for the ballot through the petition process is not grounds for identifying that candidate by the party's name.
Patron - Cuccinelli

F SB265

F SB567

Carried Over

C HB131

Prohibited activities at the polls. Expands from 40 feet to 60 feet the area at a polling place where campaign activities are prohibited.
Patron - Pollard

C HB348

Conditional ballots; voters whose names do not appear on pollbooks. Modifies the identification requirements for voters who cast conditional ballots to take into account provisions in the Help America Vote Act and to require identification before counting a conditional ballot. The bill specifies the only valid reasons for counting conditional ballots: the failure of the officer of election to notice the voter's name on the pollbook or the failure of the general registrar to enter the voter's information properly into the Virginia voter registration system.
Patron - Albo

C HB351

Elections; assistance to voters. Provides, with certain exceptions, that no person shall assist more than two voters at the polls or voting absentee.
Patron - Albo

C HB678

Removal of certain elected and appointed officers by the courts. Adds certain misdemeanor convictions to the list of grounds for removal of an officer. The bill adds convictions for assault and battery, sexual battery, attempted sexual battery, and indecent exposure to the list of grounds for removal in cases where the victim or complaining witness is an employee of the officer or under the officer's supervision.
Patron - Rapp

C HB681

Campaign Finance Disclosure Act; information required on reports of contributions and expenditures. Provides that for purposes of aggregating contributions and reporting aggregate contributions and expenditures by candidates who seek election to successive terms in the same office, aggregations shall cover an election cycle that begins on January 1 of the election year to January 1 of the next regular election year for the office.
Patron - Rapp

C HB844

Virginia Clean Election Act and Fund; penalties. Establishes an alternative, publicly financed, campaign financing option for candidates for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General. A candidate may volunteer to participate and be certified for public funds after a qualifying process. A participating candidate may not accept or spend private contributions and must abide by the campaign contribution and spending restrictions set out in the Act. The bill establishes the Virginia Clean Election Commission to administer the Act and Fund. The bill is based on the Maine Clean Election Act.
Patron - Baskerville

C HB951

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 nonelection years. This bill is identical to SB 470 as introduced.
Patron - Ebbin

C HB987

Electronic voting systems. Requires that direct electronic voting devices be equipped to provide voter-verified paper ballots by January 1, 2007, and that the State Board of Elections begin a testing program for direct electronic voting devices and accompanying voter-verified paper ballots at the November 2004 general election. The Board shall conduct a random audit of direct electronic voting devices for comparison with the results obtained under the testing program.
Patron - Hugo

C HB1023

C HB1200

Electronic voting systems. Provides that on and after January 1, 2006, direct electronic voting devices such as touch screen devices must be equipped to provide a paper copy record of the votes cast on a contemporaneous and continuing basis as votes are cast and accumulated on the device.
Patron - Cline

C HB1351

Elections; solicitation of absentee ballot applications or ballots. Makes it unlawful for anyone to solicit, in person, absentee ballot applications or ballots in any hospital, nursing home, or assisted living facility. The prohibition does not apply to family members or to general or assistant registrars, electoral board members or their staffs. A violation of the section is a Class 1 misdemeanor under § 24.2-1017.
Patron - Purkey

C HB1465

Campaign Finance Disclosure Act; record retention requirements and reviews of campaign finance disclosure reports. Provides that (i) the State Board of Elections shall review the campaign finance reports of candidates for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General and 10 percent of the candidates for the General Assembly selected at random; (ii) the review shall be for the purposes of (a) reconciling the balance in the campaign depository with the amounts reported in the candidate's reports of receipts and expenditures and (b) reviewing the reports for mathematical accuracy and facial completeness including the reporting of specific information required by law; (iii) the Board shall meet publicly to select by a random drawing the General Assembly candidate campaigns to review; (iv) a campaign committee shall be exempt from review if it has received less than $25,000 in contributions; and (v) the campaign treasurer shall retain, and provide on request by the Board, the bank statements and copies of checks issued on campaign depositories and receipts for campaign fund expenditures greater than $500. The bill will take effect January 1, 2005.
Patron - Scott, J.M.

C SB102

Electronic voting systems. Provides that direct electronic voting devices such as touch screen devices must be equipped to provide a paper copy record of the votes cast on a contemporaneous and continuing basis as votes are cast and accumulated on the device. This bill is identical to SB 137.
Patron - Devolites

C SB137

C SB268

Campaign Finance Disclosure Act; reports of large pre-election in-kind contributions and independent expenditures; penalties. Applies to in-kind contributions and independent expenditures greater than $5,000 in a statewide election or $2,500 in other elections made in the 30 days before a primary or special election or 60 days before a general election to pay for advertisements referring to a clearly identified candidate. The bill requires the maker of the in-kind contribution or independent expenditure and recipient of the in-kind contribution to file a campaign disclosure report on the next business day. The bill provides for a civil penalty of $2,500 for the first failure to report and $5,000 for each subsequent failure in an election cycle.
Patron - Potts

C SB391

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General Assembly>Division of Legislative Services>Publications>Session Summaries>2004>Elections

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