McAuliffe vetoes bill requiring investigations into Virginia voters

Governor Terry McAuliffe vetoed Senate Bill 1105, which would require local election officials to investigate Virginia voters without a clear standard for when and how such investigations should be undertaken.

The Governor’s full veto statement is below:

February 23, 2017
Pursuant to Article V, Section 6, of the Constitution of Virginia, I veto Senate Bill 1105, which would require local election officials to investigate voters under certain circumstances and provide a report to the State Board of Elections.

By requiring 133 individual general registrars to conduct an investigation of voters under undefined standards, this bill raises serious constitutional questions. It could expose eligible and properly registered Virginians to the risk of improper disenfranchisement.

Further, Senate Bill 1105 would increase the administrative burden on local election officials. Rather than imposing unnecessary investigative requirements on those officials, we should focus attention and resources on the Commonwealth’s proven and efficient methods of list maintenance, which serve as a national model.

Accordingly, I veto this bill.

Sincerely,
Terence R. McAuliffe

Background: Senate Bill 1105

Requires the local electoral boards to direct the general registrars to investigate the list of registered voters whenever the number of registered voters in a county or city exceeds the population of persons age 18 years or older, based on the most recent population estimate of the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service of the University of Virginia. The bill also requires the local electoral boards to direct the general registrars to investigate the list of persons voting at an election whenever the number of persons voting at any election in a county or city exceeds the number of persons registered to vote in that county or city. The Department of Elections is required to provide certain data to any general registrar conducting such an investigation for the registrar’s use during the investigation. The local electoral boards are required to make reports of the findings to the State Board. These reports are public documents.