Virginia: House Republicans stop Sen. Norment’s felon voting rights proposal | Richmond Times-Dispatch

A House of Delegates committee on Friday stopped a proposal from Sen. Thomas K. Norment Jr., R-James City, that would have given legislators authority over deciding which felons receive the right to vote again, while reducing the governor’s power. The proposed constitutional amendment — Senate Joint Resolution 223 — passed the Republican-controlled Senate 21-19 earlier this month after bitter, partisan debate. In the House Privileges and Elections Committee on Friday, a motion to advance the proposal did not receive a second, and it is expected to die in the committee as this year’s General Assembly session heads into its final week.

Virginia: Voter registration records have loopholes but no evidence of widespread fraud | Virginian-Pilot

Can someone who isn’t an American citizen illegally register and vote in Virginia’s elections? Yes. Can a felon whose rights haven’t been restored vote undetected in Virginia? Yes. Can someone be registered to vote in Virginia and another state and illegally cast ballots in both places? Yes. State and local election officials acknowledge all those crimes can happen in the Old Dominion because the state’s voter rolls aren’t airtight. Even with those gaps, the same officials and a prominent election expert argue there’s no evidence of widespread voter fraud. They reject President Donald Trump’s often-repeated but unverified claim that millions of noncitizens illegally voted against him in November. “If you want to find thousands or even millions of people who committed voter fraud, good luck with that, because there’s no way that’s true,” said David Becker, lead author of a 2012 Pew Center on The States study of the nation’s voter registration systems. Court records back him up where Virginia’s concerned.

Virginia: After complaints about Virginia voter registration, cuts for election software upgrades | Daily Press

Over the course of a five-and-a-half hour hearing in the run-up to last year’s presidential election, Republican legislators lamented problems with the state’s electronic voter registration system. Days later, right at the deadline to register to vote, that system crashed. Funding to upgrade the system was cut Thursday in the Senate by some of the same legislators who keyed in on the issue last fall. State Sen. Jill Vogel co-chaired that October meeting, and she also heads the budget subcommittee that removed nearly $4 million in new funding Gov. Terry McAuliffe had proposed for the Virginia Department of Elections. She said on the Senate floor Thursday that some of that money will likely come back into the budget as the House and Senate negotiate a final spending bill.

Virginia: Caustic debate unfolds in Senate as GOP moves to slow down felon voting restoration | Richmond Times-Dispatch

Gov. Terry McAuliffe issued an executive order in April restoring the voting rights of more than 200,000 felons who had served their sentences.
The Democrat’s move took the Virginia executive’s power to restore civil rights further than any previous governor and led to a court challenge and eventually legislation. That legislation generated a bitter, partisan debate in the Senate on Tuesday over McAuliffe’s actions and Virginia’s history of hindering African-Americans from voting. In the end, the Senate voted 21-19, along party lines, to pass Senate Joint Resolution 223 from Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr., R-James City. The debate came just as legislators reached crossover, the functional midpoint of this year’s 46-day session. In contrast to McAuliffe’s policy of liberally restoring rights, the Norment proposal would set criteria to curtail such power for any future governor.

Virginia: Three bills arise from Lynchburg ballot shortage; registrars to retain choice when ordering ballots | The News & Advance

Local registrars will retain autonomy to order the number of ballots they choose for each election after legislators cut language from twin bills arising from the Lynchburg special election ballot shortage. The pair proposed by Sen. Steve Newman, R-Bedford County, and Del. Scott Garrett, R-Lynchburg, are two of three pieces of legislation arising from the Jan. 10 special election in which several Hill City precincts ran out of pre-printed ballots in the morning. The resulting confusion led to angry and confused voters, some of whom left without casting a ballot.

Virginia: House passes bill to require proof of citizenship to vote in state, local elections | Richmond Times-Dispatch

Legislation to require proof of U.S. citizenship before registering to vote in Virginia elections passed the Republican-controlled House of Delegates Wednesday on a 64-33 vote along party lines. Echoing President Donald Trump’s claim, made without evidence, that millions of people in the country illegally have made it onto the voter rolls, the GOP-sponsored bill would apply to state and local elections because citizenship tests are not allowed in federal elections. Citizenship could be proved with a birth certificate, passport, naturalization document or other record accepted under federal law. Anyone registered to vote as of Jan. 1, 2018, would not have to prove their citizenship. “You may be aware that there have been cases of non-citizens either inadvertently or intentionally registering to vote in the commonwealth,” Del. Mark L. Cole, R-Spotsylvania, the bill’s sponsor, said on the floor this week. “This was designed to prevent that.”

Virginia: Democrats call for vote on redistricting reforms | Capital News Service

Democratic delegates Tuesday called on Republican House Speaker William Howell to revive legislation that supporters say would help take politics out of redistricting. The Democrats tried to put pressure on Howell a day after a Republican-dominated subcommittee voted to kill five redistricting proposals in one swoop with little discussion. At its meeting Monday morning, the Constitutional Subcommittee of the House Privileges and Elections Committee ignored a request from a Democratic member to vote on the proposed constitutional amendments individually. The panel then tabled the redistricting measures on a single 4–3 vote. Republican Dels. Randy Minchew of Leesburg, Mark Cole of Spotsylvania, Tim Hugo of Centreville and Jackson Miller of Manassas all voted to table the resolutions. Opposing the motion were Republican Del. Jason Miyares of Virginia Beach and Democratic Dels. Joseph Lindsey of Norfolk and Marcia Price of Newport News.

Virginia: Voting rights reform for felons dies in General Assembly subcommittee | Roanoke Times

Legislators’ attempts to reform the process by which felons regain the right to vote hit a dead-end Monday. A General Assembly subcommittee killed a block of constitutional amendments, including House Joint Resolution 542 by Del. Greg Habeeb, R-Salem, that would explore new avenues for felons to regain their voting rights after serving prison time. In a 4-3 vote, a House privileges and elections subcommittee tabled five constitutional amendments that would alter the way felons regain their voting rights. The subcommittee also tabled rights restoration bills proposed by Democratic legislators from Fairfax and Richmond and by Del. Danny Marshall, R-Danville. In addition, the subcommittee sidelined another 20 proposed amendments covering a range of issues.

Virginia: After bitter fight with McAuliffe over felon voting, General Assembly finds little consensus on reform | Richmond Times-Dispatch

It was the biggest policy fight in Virginia last year, but nearly halfway through the General Assembly session, nobody’s really talking about it.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s push for a sweeping expansion of voting rights for more than 200,000 felons, which drew blasts of criticism from then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and a successful Republican legal challenge in the Supreme Court of Virginia, seemed to tee up a big issue for lawmakers in the 2017 legislative session. McAuliffe and other Democrats railed against the disenfranchisement policy in the state constitution as a relic from Virginia’s racist past that should be eliminated.

Virginia: After Clinton wins Virginia, state Republicans try to change how votes are tallied | The Washington Post

A bill advancing in the Virginia House of Representatives would end the familiar “winner take all” system of awarding the state’s presidential electoral votes and replace it with a system to award electoral votes by congressional district, similar to what’s currently done in Maine and Nebraska. The goal is a noble one. Under the winner take all system, the votes of people who opted for a candidate other than the statewide winner are quite literally not counted when the electoral college convenes in December. If votes were allocated by congressional district, the final electoral vote tally could more closely represent the statewide popular vote mix. In 2016, for instance, Hillary Clinton won 49.8 percent of Virginia’s popular vote but 100 percent of its 13 electoral votes. Had those votes been allocated by congressional district instead, Clinton would have received only 7 while Trump got 6.

Virginia: Legislative panel keeps photo ID requirement | The Virginian-Pilot

A legislative subcommittee killed an attempt Tuesday to repeal Virginia’s requirement that voters show a photo ID at the polls. A subcommittee of the House Privileges and Elections Committee voted to shelve HB 1904, which would have eliminated the mandate that registered Virginia voters present a driver’s license, passport or other government-issued photo ID in order to vote. Republicans say the photo ID requirement prevents voter fraud. But the bill’s sponsor, Democratic Del. Steve Heretick of Portsmouth, said it prevents people from voting. “We can’t point to any incidence of voter fraud that any registrar, that anyone on the Board of Elections, that anyone can point to,” Heretick said.

Virginia: Republican group makes record $5 million bet on Virginia governor’s race | The Washington Post

The Republican Governors Association just wrote a $5 million check — the largest single political donation in Virginia’s history — with the goal of putting a Republican in the governor’s mansion. The whopping contribution suggests Republicans like their odds in the commonwealth, one of just two states to hold governor’s races this year. But the structure of the donation would allow the RGA to take the money back if that outlook changes. “We could end up spending none of it,” RGA spokesman Jon Thompson said. Virginia has a popular Democratic governor, but Gov. Terry McAuliffe is banned by the state’s constitution from serving back-to-back terms. Four Republicans and two Democrats are running to succeed him.

Virginia: Man admits trying to register fake voters for Virginia progressive group | The Washington Post

While working for the group New Virginia Majority, Vafalay Massaquoi invented voters and filed false applications with election officials. Massaquoi, a 30-year-old former Alexandria resident, pleaded guilty Thursday to forging a public record and election fraud. He was sentenced to 500 hours of community service, along with the 90 days he has spent in jail, and a suspended sentence of five years in prison, pending good behavior. Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter noted in a statement that because Massaquoi simply made up the names of voters, the chance that any fraudulent ballots would actually have been cast was extremely low.

Virginia: Lynchburg voters continue to report problems after ballot shortage during special election | News Advance

Lynchburg voters looking to cast their ballots in the special election for the 22nd Senate District today are encountering an unusual snag in the democratic process – voting precincts out of ballots. For voter Leighton Dodd, who said he planned to vote for Democrat Ryant Washington, he told The News & Advance that he tried to vote at 11:30 a.m. at Bedford Hills School precinct, but there were no ballots. When he came back after lunch, around 1 p.m. the precinct had run out again. “To not have enough ballots is ridiculous,” Dodd said as he sat in a line of 30 voters who were waiting for more ballots to be delivered so that they could cast their votes in the special election. Dodd expressed concern that the ballot snafu could affect the election.

Virginia: Governor promises to “lean in” on ethics, voting legislation | Associated Press

Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe says he’ll be actively promoting measures in this year’s legislative session aimed at strengthening the state’s ethics rules and making it easier to vote, priorities that will likely face a difficult path forward in the GOP-controlled General Assembly. McAuliffe said Tuesday he also supports legislation to ban lawmakers from using their campaign accounts for personal use, calling the move a necessary complement to a $100 gift cap that lawmakers approved earlier in his term. “There has been a gigantic, gaping hole in our ethics reform here in the commonwealth of Virginia,” McAuliffe said, promising to “lean in” on the issue even though it faces dim prospects.

Virginia: Voting changes in Virginia proposed in Assembly | WTOP

Virginia voters may no longer get to wait until primary day to decide which party to vote in; absentee balloting or voter identification laws could change, and lawmakers could face term limits under a series of competing proposals in the General Assembly. The annual session runs only into late February, so action on the bills and proposed constitutional amendments must happen within weeks of lawmakers gaveling in on Jan. 11. The restoration of voting rights for felons is expected to be a significant issue in the session. Gov. Terry McAuliffe moved to restore the voting rights of more than 200,000 felons in June, but that was eventually overturned by the Supreme Court of Virginia. McAuliffe has since continued to restore rights at a smaller scale. Members of the General Assembly have introduced a series of proposed constitutional amendments that would automatically restore the right to vote for some or all felons after they have completed their sentences, or allow for a pathway to get those rights back. A proposal from a number of Democrats, including Del. Marcus Simon, D-Falls Church, would eliminate the state constitution’s restrictions on felons voting.

Virginia: Court-imposed election map paved way for new Virginia congressmen | The Washington Post

When two new members of the Virginia congressional delegation are sworn in Tuesday, they can partially thank a panel of federal judges for their seats in Congress. The judges fiddled with the boundaries of the districts enough to allow a Democrat to win in Richmond and a new Republican to oust an incumbent in the Virginia Beach area. That means hello, Rep.-elects Donald McEachin (D) and Scott Taylor (R). Goodbye, seven-term congressman J. Randy Forbes (R). Their unexpected paths to victory — or early retirement — reveal the extent to which the nuances of an elections map can help determine winners and losers. The Virginia map changes started with a lawsuit filed by Democratic lawyer Marc E. Elias in 2013.

Virginia: Voter ID law upheld by federal court after Democratic challenge | The Guardian

A federal appeals court has upheld a Virginia law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, rejecting a challenge from Democrats who argued that it suppressed voting by minorities and young people. A three-judge panel of the fourth US circuit court of appeals ruled on Tuesday that the law did not violate the Voting Rights Act or impose an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote. The ruling comes just months after a different panel of the same court struck down a North Carolina law that required voters to produce a photo ID and also scrapped same-day registration and shortened early voting periods. But the panel that issued Tuesday’s ruling found that the facts in the North Carolina case “are in no way” like those in the passage of Virginia’s bill. Virginians can obtain free photo IDs at voter registrar offices, but Democrats argued that few people knew about that option because the state had done little to spread the word.

Virginia: Federal appeals court upholds voter ID law | Richmond Times-Dispatch

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday turned back a challenge to Virginia’s voter photo ID law upheld by a federal judge in Richmond this year. Last year, the Democratic Party of Virginia and two voters filed a suit alleging that the Republican-controlled General Assembly enacted the law to curb the number of young and minority voters. In May, after a two-week trial in March, U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson upheld the photo ID requirement, and the plaintiffs appealed. On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the Richmond-based appeals court upheld Hudson’s decision.

Virginia: Lawmakers propose stricter rules for third-party voter registration drives | Richmond Times-Dispatch

The Republican chairman of the House of Delegates elections committee has introduced a bill to tighten rules governing voter registration drives after multiple cases of potential fraud leading up to the presidential election. Del. Mark L. Cole, R-Spotsylvania, pre-filed a bill that would add stricter paperwork and reporting requirements for non-governmental groups that canvass neighborhoods and events to register Virginians to vote. Cole’s legislation, which will be considered when the legislature reconvenes in January, would require every individual employee or volunteer working with outside groups to register with the state and submit logs of their activity. The state would assign each worker a unique identifying number and keep a record of each person’s name and contact information. The bill would prevent voter registration groups from paying employees on a per-application basis, which some have speculated could create a financial incentive for phony applications. Del. Hyland F. “Buddy” Fowler Jr., R-Hanover, pre-filed the same bill.

Virginia: How reliable are Virginia’s voting machines? | State of Elections

It may be tempting to think that the United States, the land of smartphones and supercomputers, would have commensurate levels of technology when it came to voting. Dispelling this, sadly, does not require us to look very far. Meet the WINVote touchscreen voting machine. Created and implemented in the early-2000s (and without any form of update since 2004), the WINVote machine is essentially a glorified laptop running Windows XP that also features a touch display. Its USB ports are physically unprotected, the wireless encryption key is set to “a-b-c-d-e,” the administrator password to access the machine (which is unchangeable) is “admin,” and there exists no auditable paper trail after an individual has voted. Oh, and it’s prone to crash. A lot. All of these, among other concerns, combined to lead security experts to term it “the worst voting machine in the U.S.” Despite these documented flaws, when Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe cast a ballot in 2014 at a Richmond-area precinct, he — like many voters in the city and in other parts of the Commonwealth — encountered the problematic WINVote machine. Multiple complaints over crashes and slow voting led the Governor to call for an investigation by the Virginia Information Technology Agency (VITA).

Virginia: Voter registration system crashes, preventing some from signing up in time | The Washington Post

A civil rights group filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday to force Virginia to extend its voter registration period after the state’s online system crashed Monday, the last day to register, preventing an unknown number of voters from getting on the rolls. One registrar estimated that “tens of thousands” of Virginians had been unable to register by the cutoff at 11:59 p.m. Monday, although the state elections commissioner, Edgardo Cortés, said the number was unknown. The meltdown prompted a Washington-based civil rights group to file the lawsuit on behalf of Kathy and Michael Kern, a Charlottesville couple who tried multiple times Sunday and Monday to register without success. Two nonprofit groups involved in voter-registration drives — New Virginia Majority Education Fund and Virginia Civic Engagement Table — also are plaintiffs.

Virginia: Federal judge orders immediate reopening of voter registration in Virginia | Richmond Times-Dispatch

Virginians who couldn’t register to vote because a state website crashed were given one more chance to sign up after a federal judge on Thursday ordered the state to reopen the voter registration period until 11:59 p.m. Friday. The court ruling, welcomed by Democrats and Republicans, was brought about by a lawsuit filed Tuesday by a civil rights group arguing that potentially thousands of Virginians had been affected by major problems with the state’s online voter registration system ahead of Monday’s registration deadline. Gov. Terry McAuliffe said earlier this week that he couldn’t extend the deadline himself because it’s fixed in state law. The office of Attorney General Mark R. Herring did not contest the lawsuit. During a brief hearing in Alexandria, U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton refused to approve a longer extension favored by state officials and the Washington-based Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the group that brought the case. Hilton was asked to extend the registration period until midnight Monday. The judge agreed accommodations should be made to fix the problem but said a five-day extension seemed needlessly long.

Virginia: System crashes on final day of Virginia voter registration prompt civil rights group to call for extension | Richmond Times-Dispatch

Virginia’s online voter registration was “completely unresponsive” at times on Monday, prompting a civil rights group to call for an extension of the state’s voter registration period to accommodate would-be voters who were locked out. Kristen Clarke, president of the executive director of the D.C.-based nonprofit Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said her group received “many calls” Monday through its voter protection program from people “desperately trying to register in advance of the deadline. We’re very concerned about the breakdown yesterday,” Clarke said in an interview this morning. She said her group intends to send a formal letter to state officials today requesting an extension. The letter asks the state for a three-day extension given the “extraordinary circumstances” and asks state officials to act today. Because the registration deadline is set in state law, Gov. Terry McAuliffe has limited power to order such an extension.

Virginia: GOP state lawmaker calls for removal of Virginia’s top election official | Richmond Times-Dispatch

A committee meeting on Virginia’s election readiness turned into a bitter partisan fight Thursday as a Republican state lawmaker called for the removal of the state’s top election official and Democrats accused the GOP of following Donald Trump’s lead by casting doubt on the upcoming election. The proceedings turned heated after Virginia Department of Elections Commissioner Edgardo Cortés, an appointee of Gov. Terry McAuliffe, took the podium to defend the state’s preparations after roughly a dozen election officials from across Virginia vented about a voter system they described as technologically deficient, underfunded, and susceptible to low-level abuse that often goes unpunished. … McAuliffe’s office said the governor has no plans to replace Cortés.

Virginia: Ballot selfies are legal in Virginia, attorney general says | Richmond Times-Dispatch

Ballot selfies are not a crime, according to Virginia Attorney General Mark. R. Herring. In a formal opinion last month, Herring said it’s not against the law for Virginia voters to use a cellphone inside a polling place to take photos or video of their own ballot for publication on Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook, as long as it doesn’t interfere with other voters or disrupt the election. Some states ban photography in polling places. Where it’s not outright illegal, many election organizers consider the use of cellphones to be taboo, given the private nature of voting and the need for an orderly process. But as cellphones and social media become more ubiquitous, bans on ballot photos have started to loosen. Last week, a federal appeals court ruled that a New Hampshire law prohibiting voters from posting photos of completed ballots online infringed on free speech.

Virginia: He fought in World War II. He died in 2014. And he just registered to vote in Virginia | The Washington Post

The FBI and local police are investigating how at least 19 dead Virginians were recently re-registered to vote in this critical swing state. One case came to light after relatives of a deceased man received a note congratulating him for registering, Rockingham County Commonwealth’s Attorney Marsha Garst said Thursday. “His family members were very distraught,” said Garst,…

Virginia: Court that nixed North Carolina voter ID law studies Virginia’s law | Associated Press

The Democratic Party of Virginia argued before a federal appeals court on Thursday that its ruling blocking North Carolina’s voter identification law should also apply to Virginia’s, since Republican lawmakers in their state also sought to suppress voting by minorities and young people. Bruce Spiva, an attorney for Virginia Democrats, told a three judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that state’s law requiring people to show photo identification at the polls was passed for a single purpose: to make it more difficult for blacks, Latinos and young people to vote. “The same Legislature that passed the voter ID law is the same Legislature that was found to have racially gerrymandered its districts,” Spiva added, referring to 4th Circuit’s ruling that Virginia Republicans packed too many black voters in one congressional district to make adjacent districts safer for GOP incumbents. Much of Thursday’s debate centered on how Virginia’s law — and the facts surrounding its implementation — differ from North Carolina’s.

Virginia: Amid voter ID fight and ‘misleading’ mailings, voting to begin in battleground Virginia | The Washington Post

Voters begin going to the polls Friday in this battleground state, where Republicans and Democrats continue wrangling over voter ID laws, and elections officials were warning Virginians to ignore “misleading” letters about their registration status. Voters who cannot make it to the polls on Election Day may cast their ballots in person at their local elections offices starting Friday. In-person absentee voting continues through Nov. 5. Virginia does not offer early voting to all voters, as some other states do. But it allows people to vote absentee — with mail-in ballots or in person — if they fit certain categories. Those include voters who will be away at college or on business trips and vacations, who have long commutes or religious obligations, are first responders or active-duty members of the military or are in jail awaiting trial. … Earlier this week, state elections officials warned that some voters may have received mailings that suggested their voter registration status was in question. Edgardo Cortés, the state’s elections commissioner, said the mailings came from at least two organizations, America’s Future and the Voter Participation Center.

Virginia: U.S. appeals court to hear arguments on Virginia’s voter ID law | Reuters

A U.S. appeals court on Thursday will hear Virginia Democrats’ challenge to a 2013 Republican-backed state law requiring prospective voters to show approved photo identification before casting their ballots. The Virginia Democratic Party is asking the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, to overturn the law. A federal judge in May upheld the measure passed by the Republican-led legislature and signed by then-Governor Robert McDonnell, also a Republican. The appeal ahead of the Nov. 8 elections is among legal challenges around the United States to voter identification laws that were driven by Republicans who argue they prevent election fraud.