VA Election Bills: ‘Enrolled' in a Veto List?

EPEC Team takes a look at why some of election bills passed out of General Assembly have raised alarm bells among election-security groups. Plus, missing DAL data.

EPEC Team has been tracking a litany of election-related bills working through Virginia’s General Assembly, many of which have election-security officials concerned about their impact on the administration and accuracy of elections.

(See Part 1 and Part 2 of the Election Bill Rundown.)

The reason they are controversial? Many, if not all of the bills, did not enjoy bi-partisan support from Republicans and Democrat lawmakers.

Some would usurp the authority of Election Board localities and registrars who oversee local elections by routing more decisions through the Dept. of Elections, and through Richmond’s Circuit Court.

Another seeks to block polling places in police stations and sheriff’s offices.

Today’s Part 3 includes bills that have so far been “enrolled,” meaning they were passed by slim Democrat majorities in the House of Delegates and Senate, and are in process to be on their way to the desk of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

The Latest Rundown:

--HB 942  would limit the use of police stations and sheriff’s offices for polling locations and does not explain why.

The bill states: the governing body of each county, city, and town shall provide funding for each polling place. It adds: Polling places shall be in public buildings wherever possible, “except that no polling place shall be located in a police station or sheriff's office but may be located in a public building that houses multiple offices, including a police station or sheriff's office.”

If the security of election workers is paramount, it would stand to reason that polling places sited in law enforcement offices would be welcomed, not banned.

—SB 606, which EPEC Team reported in Part 1 of our Election Bill is part of what appears to be a near-obsession with left-leaning groups to force Virginia to rejoin the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) after it exited its contract in 2023.

Despite controversies over leaking of voter data to third-party political activists, and multiple lawsuits that show ERIC’s by-laws put states out of compliance with the National Voter Registration Act, Democrat lawmakers have introduced a flurry of bills to force Virginia back into ERIC.

(See exit letter from Commissioner Susan Beals explaining why it left ERIC here. It is hard to foresee why the Youngkin administration would want to reverse course after leaving ERIC and crafting a modernized voter-list maintenance system in its place.)

—SB 196 would introduce procedures into the Dept. of Elections that would create conditions to return to ERIC by limiting the data sources the Dept. of Elections deploys to keep its official voting lists up to date.

--HB 623 is seen as a companion bill to a controversial “hate crimes” against election officials bill in the Senate, SB 364, only HB 623 would expand civil causes of action for “alleged violations of certain laws related to the rights of voters.”

The vague language of such “causes” means the bill has the potential to enable well-funded groups to target citizens with lawsuits and chill their First Amendment rights, as well as their rights to make good-faith challenges if they believe a voter is not eligible to vote in their precinct.

Given the existence of Same Day Registration in Virginia, and the provisional voting process available to voters, the bills appear to be draconian reaction to a good-faith, statute-guided challenge process available to voters if they are suspected of not being a “qualified voter” in their precincts.

The bill mandates that all hearings on challenges would be routed through Circuit Court in Richmond, which usurps local Electoral Board authority.

—HB 1534 is a companion bill in the House of Delegates that would just eliminate the voter-challenge process.

--HB1408 contains language similar to HB 623, which would remove local electoral boards’ authorities, by directing “the Department of Elections to develop standards and guidelines for local governing bodies to utilize when determining the number of voter satellite offices to be established in a county or city for a general election and the relative locations of such satellite offices.”

The trend in many of these bills is to remove local authority to mange localities’ elections and add more “top-down” state-level management.

EPEC Team will keep reporting out the news and the fate of the bills.

2. Low Turnout + Low Staffing = Lower Data Rates?

Early Voting in Virginia’s 2024 Presidential Primary has been a low-turnout event so far, which aligns with EPEC’s analysis of the last four years showing a trickle of voters taking advantage of the first four weeks of the 45-day voting stretch.

As of Feb. 29, 2024, the Republican primary early voting tallies shows 76,336 countable ballots (38,229 on machine and about 38,039 voting mail-in.) Another 31,127 mail-in ballots appear to be on-track for central absentee precinct (CAP) processing.

The Democrat presidential primary turnout so far shows 121,669 ballots cast (a combination of 96,981 mail-in ballots and 24,628 on machine voters), with 80,598 in “pre-processed” mode, which means they’re about ready for the CAP processing.

EPEC’s CTO Jon Lareau had calculated that about 12% of Democrat-leaning voters casting ballots appear to be crossing over to a Republican ballot, a trend seen in other states’ with open primaries. See his analysis here.

For smaller localities, the low turnout may explain why Daily Absentee List (DAL) data appears to be out of date — if it’s showing up at all.

EPEC’s Senior Analyst Rick Naigle has been tracking a lack of reporting on the DAL reflected in about 30 localities so far.

He writes:

Low turnout may explain why data from some Localities is not being updated daily. One Locality, Charles City County, did not update In Person voting numbers for an eight (8) day period, according to the Dept. of Elections’ Daily Absentee List (DAL).

This data should be updated in real time with the totals being reflected when periodic reports are generated.

Charles City County is not the only Locality where daily data are missing. About 30 localities have missing data on daily DAL.

In monitoring the output, expected value is 133, all of Virginia’s voting localities. Anything less than 133 is an indication that ballots are live — yet unaccounted data.

On 9 February we noticed one Locality had not reported ANY In Person (On Machine) voting through 8 February.

We confirmed In Person voting had been occurring since 19 January but the Daily Absentee Lists were not being updated with daily In Person voting information for that Locality.

Low In-Person turnout during the early voting period for Virginia Democrat and Republican primaries warrants a closer look by Virginia legislatures at the duration of early voting periods — and the stress it places on smaller localities’ resources.

The missing data begs the question: How are data updates (of live ballots waiting to be tallied by March 5th) delayed?

Perhaps smaller Localities are creating a local version of the statewide registration records, working offline for an extended period, and then synchronizing to the master data source. EPEC Team is looking into the process, and whether that is allowed by Virginia statute.

Whether this is due to a staffing issue is unclear.

EPEC Team will keep tracking and report back on turnout trends.

Until our next edition of EPEC Team, that’s a wrap for now. #