2026 SESSION

SENATE SUBSTITUTE

26108498D

HOUSE BILL NO. 319

AMENDMENT IN THE NATURE OF A SUBSTITUTE

(Proposed by the Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections

on February 24, 2026)

(Patron Prior to Substitute—Hernandez)

A BILL to direct the Secretary of Administration to convene a work group on automatic voter registration.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. § 1. The Secretary of Administration shall convene a work group for the purpose of studying potential statutory improvements to the current partial automatic voter registration (AVR) system in the Commonwealth. The work group shall consist of representatives from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, the Virginia Information Technologies Agency, the Office of the Attorney General, members of the House and Senate Committees on Privileges and Elections, general registrars and other local governmental officials, and representatives from organizations advocating for or working on voting rights, in addition to any other persons deemed necessary by the Secretary of Administration.

The work group shall consider the following metrics to determine challenges and opportunities of Virginia's current approach:

1. The rate at which eligible Virginians currently decline to register to vote, or update their voter registrations, at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and the declination rates of those 16 and 17 years of age who are eligible for preregistration.

2. The number of Virginians currently eligible but not registered to vote.

3. The impact of the current partial AVR system on transaction times at DMV and opportunities to reduce transaction times and administrative labor.

4. Protections in the current AVR system against non-citizen registration and ways of reducing the risk of inadvertent errors or false statements.

5. The degree to which the current AVR system enables an audit trail for registration eligibility.

6. Other states' DMV AVR models and their performance on the metrics above.

The Secretary of Administration shall submit a report to the Chairs of the House and Senate Committees on Privileges and Elections with its findings by November 15, 2026. Such report shall include recommendations for legislative action, if the work group makes any such recommendations.