Brazen. Scary. Infuriating. Disgusting.

Those were the reactions from Republicans at the February Fairfax GOP monthly meeting, hearing for the first time about the fourteen Democrat-sponsored election bills that had already passed both Virginia’s Senate and House of Delegates. All fourteen bills are on the way to Governor Youngkin’s desk to be signed or vetoed in the next few days. The Virginia 2024 legislative session is almost done, and starting March 9th, the Governor has a month to make his decisions.

Will Governor Youngkin sign these fourteen destructive bills – or VETO them, as election integrity activists across Virginia are imploring him to do?

Virginia already has some of the worst election laws in the country, passed by Democrats starting in 2020. Here are just a few examples (for a complete list click here Virginia Election Laws Passed 2020-2023.pdf ): 

• Virginia eliminated photo ID and now does not require ANY Voter ID, just a signed statement
• Mail-in Ballot harvesting is legal, and anyone can collect an unlimited numbers of ballots
• Virginia has the longest election “season” in the country, with 45 days of voting (for each primary and general election)
• Until last year, Virginia depended on a third-party, leftwing-associated group, the Electronic Registration Information Center, to verify voter rolls
• Virginia allows Ranked Choice Voting elections which suppress the ballot choices of some voters

These current laws are bad, but if the fourteen 2024 bills are signed by the Governor, election administration will be made more chaotic and less fair. These bills were all opposed by Republican legislators, as noted by former Virginia State Board of Elections Vice-Chair Dr. Clara Belle Wheeler. “All of these bills have passed out of the General Assembly on straight party lines in an attempt to dismantle the current laws,” she observed.  “These bills markedly reduce the ability to have accuracy of registrations and voting. And especially in this Presidential Election year, Virginians need honest, verifiable elections.”

What can you do?  

CONTACT THE GOVERNOR RIGHT AWAY: Contact Governor Youngkin today and ask him to VETO these fourteen bills described below that weaken Virginia’s ability to keep our elections fair and secure.  

Governor Youngkin’s contact info:  Phone: 804-786-2211 
Emails:  glenn.youngkin@governor.virginia.gov,  constituent.services@governor.virginia.gov

For draft language for your email or phone call, click here: EMAIL PHONE CALL LANGUAGE FOR YOUNGKIN VETO.pdf

JOIN US THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 2024: Join us for a March 7 online briefing on the status of these bills and the legislative session. To sign up, click here: https://argentasoftware.com/interfaces/fcrc/frmEventTicketSalesForm.aspx?EventID=4152

Here’s how these fourteen bad election bills will hurt Virginia voters’ rights to fair and secure elections:

• Makes non-citizen voting easier: Two bills make it much easier for non-citizens to vote, by removing the identifying features used to distinguish between citizen and non-citizen state-issued driver’s permits (HB1454 and SB246)
• Provides new non-verifiable ID for voting, issued by welfare contractors: The bill adds more types of acceptable voter identification from private organizations certified or licensed by the state, Social Services, Dept. of Health, Behavioral Health, Medical Assistance. Even if they are issued for other purposes, these ID cards should not be acceptable for voter ID. (HB26)
• Removes data matching methods and deadlines to weaken verification of voter registrations: Registrars and the state would no longer have deadlines to remove cancelled or illegal registrations. Voters in other states or localities can only be identified using a smaller set of criteria, reducing the number of potentially illegal voters that will be sent to Registrars to remove. (HB 904, SB196 and SB300)
• Forces Virginia to rejoin the leftwing-associated Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC): Virginia, along with eight other states in the last two years, has left ERIC. ERIC failed to clean voter rolls and shared voter information with a left-wing organization. Since then, Governor Youngkin’s administration has built a better state-run system to clean the voter rolls. Democrats want to force Virginia to rejoin ERIC. (HB1177 and SB606)
• Suppresses voter’s choices through Ranked Choice Voting (RCV): The existing RCV election law already suppresses the choices of some voters by eliminating those votes. This bill would further reduce transparency and accountability by limiting RCV audits to only the first tier of choices. (SB428)
• Limits a voter’s right to challenge another voter’s registration: This bill removes a voter’s right to challenge another voter’s registration directly to the Registrar. Instead three registered voters must challenge in Circuit Court earlier than 60 days before an election. (HB1534)
• Reduces local control: Decisions about early voting satellite offices, even daily schedules and locations, are removed from local Electoral Boards who are accountable to the community, and put under the control of the state or board of supervisors. (HB623 and HB 1408)
• Limits the Second Amendment: The prohibition of possessing a firearm is expanded from 40-feet out to 100-feet out from a polling location, electoral board meeting location, or drop box. Sponsors had no evidence-based justification for the expanded locations and distance.  (HB939)
• Limits the First Amendment: This bill could suppress protected speech criticizing election administration. Election officials and electors are given special protected status, and vaguely defined intimidation and “threats” are made causes for civil lawsuits. The bill is not needed to protect election officials, because existing laws protect all persons from intimidation or threats, and even Biden’s DOJ found that 89% of alleged “threats” against election officials were protected speech. No evidence was submitted by sponsors of any actual threats made in Virginia against election officials. (SB364)

For more information, contact the Fairfax GOP Election Integrity team, electionintegrity@fairfaxgop.org.

If you’d like to get involved as an Election Officer or Poll Watcher, go to FairfaxGOP.org/election-officers-and-pollwatchers/

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