Senate committee advances omnibus voter-registration measure after amendment, refers it to finance

An omnibus bill to tighten safeguards around Virginia’s voter rolls and standardize registrar procedures was presented and advanced by a Senate committee on the Senate of Virginia’s docket.

Delegate Price, the bill’s patron, told the committee the measure largely reorganizes code and codifies prior reforms aimed at preventing improper removals from the voter rolls. He said the bill would require that when a general registrar cancels a registration a record is created and subject to FOIA, and it would codify best practices for using the SAVE program recommended by the bipartisan Election Administration Commission (EAC).

“Technical issues … resulted in eligible people being removed from the rolls,” Price said, describing past incidents when data mismatches led to cancellations and explaining the bill’s notice periods so voters receive time to respond if their registration is challenged.

Supporters said the bill provides guardrails and operational clarity. Tram Nguyen of New Virginia Majority said the legislation “provides sufficient processes and procedures for doing that while also providing guardrails to make sure that eligible voters are not improperly removed from the voter rolls.” Monica Sarmiento of the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights said naturalized citizens had been repeatedly purged and this bill would fix that error.

A committee amendment was offered and adopted to remove a provision that would have required the Department of Vital Records to submit a DMV identifier with decedent lists. Counsel explained the amendment’s effect and the committee adopted it by voice.

The committee amended the motion to report the bill and refer it to the finance committee before reporting it out of this committee.

Next steps: the bill was reported out and referred to the finance committee for further consideration.