(HB2276)

GOVERNOR'S VETO

Pursuant to Article V, Section 6 of the Constitution of Virginia, I veto House Bill 2276, which makes multiple changes to the Department of Elections’ list maintenance practices.

Virginia’s elections remain safe and secure. Maintaining accurate voter rolls is essential. This bill fails to address the root issue—the reliability of data provided to ELECT by other state agencies.

Raising the matching threshold to 80 points reduces the number of list maintenance data matches provided to general registrars, limiting necessary cancellations and reducing voter roll accuracy. By centralizing all matching within ELECT, registrars lose the ability to research potential discrepancies, weakening local election oversight. The bill also removes the 30-day deadline for processing cancellations, increasing the risk of outdated records remaining on the rolls. Additionally, requiring two mailed notices for most cancellations imposes an unfunded burden on local election offices with no clear benefit.

Virginia has already made significant improvements to voter list maintenance through audits, new data-sharing agreements, and interagency collaboration—efforts recognized nationally. Executive Order 31 established a workgroup to strengthen data-sharing practices across agencies, ensuring improvements at the source. This bill ignores that progress and creates unnecessary bureaucracy.

Accordingly, I veto this bill.