Bill Text: VA HB1223 | 2016 | Regular Session | Engrossed

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Polling place; voter may give full name and current residence address orally or in writing.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-1)

Status: (Passed) 2016-03-11 - Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text reprinted (CHAP0399) [HB1223 Detail]

Download: Virginia-2016-HB1223-Engrossed.html

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16104000D
HOUSE BILL NO. 1223 House Amendments in [ ] -- February 9, 2016 A BILL to amend and reenact §24.2-643 of the Code of Virginia, relating to procedures at polling place; provision of voter's full name and current residence address. ---------- Patron Prior to Engrossment--Delegate Watts ---------- Referred to Committee on Privileges and Elections ----------

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §24.2-643 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

§24.2-643. Qualified voter permitted to vote; procedures at polling place; voter identification.

A. After the polls are open, each qualified voter at a precinct shall be permitted to vote. The officers of election shall ascertain that a person offering to vote is a qualified voter before admitting him to the voting booth and furnishing an official ballot to him.

B. (Effective January 2, 2016) An officer of election shall ask the voter for his full name and current residence address and the voter may give such information orally or in writing. The office of election shall repeat, in a voice audible to party and candidate representatives present, the full name and address stated provided by the voter. The officer shall ask the voter to present any one of the following forms of identification: his valid Virginia driver's license, his valid United States passport, or any other photo identification issued by the Commonwealth, one of its political subdivisions, or the United States; any valid student identification card containing a photograph of the voter and issued by any institution of higher education located in the Commonwealth or any private school located in the Commonwealth; or any valid employee identification card containing a photograph of the voter and issued by an employer of the voter in the ordinary course of the employer's business. [ The provision allowing a voter to give his full name and current residence address in writing shall not be construed to require the form of identification presented by the voter to contain the voter's current residence address. ]

Any voter who does not show one of the forms of identification specified in this subsection shall be offered a provisional ballot under the provisions of §24.2-653. The State Board of Elections shall provide an ID-ONLY provisional ballot envelope that requires no follow-up action by the registrar or electoral board other than matching submitted identification documents from the voter for the electoral board to make a determination on whether to count the ballot.

If the voter presents one of the forms of identification listed above, if his name is found on the pollbook in a form identical to or substantially similar to the name on the presented form of identification and the name stated provided by the voter, if he is qualified to vote in the election, and if no objection is made, an officer shall enter, opposite the voter's name on the pollbook, the first or next consecutive number from the voter count form provided by the State Board, or shall enter that the voter has voted if the pollbook is in electronic form; an officer shall provide the voter with the official ballot; and another officer shall admit him to the voting booth. Each voter whose name has been marked on the pollbooks as present to vote and entitled to a ballot shall remain in the presence of the officers of election in the polling place until he has voted. If a line of voters who have been marked on the pollbooks as present to vote forms to await entry to the voting booths, the line shall not be permitted to extend outside of the room containing the voting booths and shall remain under observation by the officers of election.

A voter may be accompanied into the voting booth by his child age 15 or younger.

C. If the current residence address stated provided by the voter is different from the address shown on the pollbook, the officer of election shall furnish the voter with a change of address form prescribed by the State Board. Upon its completion, the voter shall sign the prescribed form, subject to felony penalties for making false statements pursuant to § 24.2-1016, which the officer of election shall then place in an envelope provided for such forms for transmission to the general registrar who shall then transfer or cancel the registration of such voter pursuant to Chapter 4 (§ 24.2-400 et seq.).

D. At the time the voter is asked his full name and current residence address, the officer of election shall ask any voter for whom the pollbook indicates that an identification number other than a social security number is recorded on the Virginia voter registration system if he presently has a social security number. If the voter is able to provide his social security number, he shall be furnished with a voter registration form prescribed by the State Board to update his registration information. Upon its completion, the form shall be placed by the officer of election in an envelope provided for such forms for transmission to the general registrar. Any social security numbers so provided shall be entered by the general registrar in the voter's record on the voter registration system.