The Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill that would keep state election officials from removing active-duty military members serving overseas from voter rolls.
The proposal, introduced by Del. Amy Laufer (D–Charlottesville), would allow general registrars to only cancel voter registrations through a written request from the voter or data from an approved source. Laufer told a House subcommittee on Jan. 27 that the bill aims to protect military families overseas and other potential “vulnerable” voters from being improperly removed from the rolls.
“It also attempts to streamline procedures by centralizing approved data sources, which mitigates potential errors and disputes related to inaccurate or unverified data,” Laufer said.
Nancy Smith, political director of the conservative Middle Resolution PAC, said the legislation would hinder the state’s ability to remove unqualified voters from its rolls. She also said the bill would cut registrars’ option to review a national database on out-of-state deaths.
The effort comes after Virginia was sued during the 2024 election cycle over the removal of hundreds of people from the state’s voter rolls who the Youngkin administration claimed were noncitizens. A federal judge ordered a reversal but the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately granted an emergency appeal, allowing people to be kept off the rolls.
“Election law changes every year, and we roll with the flow,” Hanover County General Registrar Teresa Smithson said Monday.
Smithson told VPM News she doesn’t anticipate the legislation, if passed, to have a significant impact on local election officials because it's a “huge process to remove” someone from the rolls.
Registrars send voters — and in some cases next of kin — notices about potential cancellations in certain cases, including if they move, die or are convicted of a felony, Smithson said. Military personnel and their families can vote absentee overseas through the state or federal programs.
Service members and Virginians living overseas can submit a federal post card application to obtain an absentee ballot for elections they’re eligible to vote in through the end of the next calendar year.
After this period, election officials alert people who need to submit another application to keep voting absentee overseas, Smithson said. No part of this process results in removal from the rolls.
If the bill is signed into law, registrars can only use data from the Department of Elections or approved state agencies, such as the Department of Motor Vehicles and Department of Health Office of Vital Records.
Family members would no longer be allowed to report deaths to registrars, and election officials wouldn’t be allowed to use obituaries to remove someone from the rolls.
“This [bill] would prevent that from being a possibility for an individual to use to cancel,” Virginia Elections Commissioner Susan Beals said during the House subcommittee meeting.
Beals told the subcommittee that the elections department gets weekly death notices from the vital records department, and registrars have access to a national health database to cancel voter registrations.
A Youngkin spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment about the legislation.
Tram Nguyen, co-executive director of the progressive group New Virginia Majority, spoke in support of the bill during the January hearing. She called it a “good quality control measure” to bolster data used to update Virginia’s voter rolls, cutting out third-party sources of information.
The Democratic-led bill passed through the House on a nearly party-line vote and is now in the Virginia Senate. If passed, the bill would be in Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s hands. The bill’s expected to be heard Tuesday in the Senate’s Privileges and Elections committee.
