An Act to amend and reenact § 24.2-532 of the Code of Virginia, relating to elections; conduct of primaries; abstract of votes; law-enforcement officer to obtain returns not forwarded.
HB1321 amends Virginia’s election code section governing abstracts of votes in primaries. The bill requires the secretary of an electoral board, after determining the nominees who received the highest number of votes, to prepare certified abstracts and certificates of the votes cast and send copies to the State Board of Elections. It also directs that additional certified copies be sent to the appropriate party committee chair for congressional, General Assembly, and local district offices, with “chairman” defined as the political party chair under whose auspices the primary is held.
The bill retains the existing rule that if the State Board has not received an abstract of votes from a county or city within six days after a state primary election, the Board must dispatch a law-enforcement officer to obtain the returns. Overall, the measure is a procedural election-administration update focused on the handling and transmission of primary election results rather than on voter eligibility, ballot access, or election outcomes.
HB1321 makes a targeted amendment to § 24.2-532 of the Code of Virginia, affecting the administrative process for primary elections and the reporting of vote abstracts. It clarifies who receives certified copies of vote abstracts for different offices and preserves the State Board of Elections’ authority to use a law-enforcement officer to retrieve missing returns after a primary. The bill primarily affects electoral boards, party committees, local election officials, the State Board of Elections, and law-enforcement personnel involved in election return collection.
The available record shows no committee transcript or recorded vote debate, so there is no evidence of significant controversy or opposition in the materials provided. The bill appears to have been treated as a routine elections administration measure and was enacted as Chapter 776. Its narrow scope and procedural nature suggest generally neutral or favorable sentiment among lawmakers.
No specific points of contention are documented in the provided materials. Potential areas of interest could include the continued use of law-enforcement officers to retrieve missing election returns and the role of party committee chairs in receiving certified abstracts, but the record does not show any expressed disagreement over those provisions.