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V

irginia

C

apitol

C

onnections

, S

ummer

2017

4

A brief history

of Virginia’s

General

Registrars

By Tracy Howard

“You’ve come a long way, baby!”

This tag line from a successful

marketing campaign was first used by the Phillip Morris Company

in 1968. Just like this “Virginia Slims” ad, Virginia had come a long

way. The late 60’s were a time of great and disparate change, the

country was often divided, and social and civic reform ruled the

decade.

Many changes had filtered across the Potomac, and the slow

but steady march for transformation had finally made its way to

Richmond. Attitudes were changing.

Supreme Court decisions and Federal Acts had rightfully

eviscerated the discriminatory clauses of Virginia’s sixty six year

old Constitution, and with it, the Commonwealth’s Election laws

under Title 24.

In Virginia however, change comes slowly, and not without

associated growing pains.

The Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act had been signed

by President Johnson; the U.S. Supreme Court over the course

of several decades had systematically dismantled discriminatory

registration and election practices.

The remnants of the “Byrd Machine” and the ratification of

the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution resulted in the Old

Dominion temporarily adopting a “You can’t tell us what to do”

attitude that produced separate and often competing Federal and

State voting rolls. It was only after the U. S. Supreme Court ruled

against Virginia’s mandatory poll taxes in Harper vs. Virginia State

Board of Elections did lawmakers began to re-evaluate. (Harper v.

Virginia Board of Elections, 383 U.S. 663 (1966)

Something had to be done, and in 1968 the process of re-writing

Virginia’s election laws began. The Virginia General Assembly

mustered an election laws study commission that, in conjunction

with the work of writing a new Virginia Constitution, resulted in a

revised body of law administering the Commonwealth’s elections.

The new Election Laws were compiled into Title 24.1, enacted

by the General Assembly in 1970. Along with the articles of suffrage

of the newly proposed Virginia Constitution the revamped election

laws were revolutionary and very progressive at the time. The new

set of laws demanded uniformity in voter registration and charged

the State Board of Elections with oversight of the registrars’ offices

and practices.

GASP! Nearly everyone could register to vote! It was enough

to give grandma the vapors!

The new Constitution disallowed registration only for non-

citizenship and the legal disabilities of felony conviction and

adjudicated incompetence. Originally, a short residence requirement

of six months, and legal age of 21 years old were included only to be

changed within a year. The 26th Amendment allowed eighteen year

olds to register and in the same year a Supreme Court ruling struck

down durational residency requirements. (Dunn v. Blumstein, 405

U.S. 330 (1972)

But Virginia being Virginia, and quite set in her ways, kept

many of the well-established methods of administering her

elections. Some of these laws were enacted by Acts of Assembly

dating back to the 1880s. The somewhat unique Virginia system

of appointed Electoral Boards and Registrars was first utilized in

1884, along with standardized ballots, officers of election and pre-

registration requirements.

But the new laws did make several significant changes, from

the new set of laws a new office emerged, the Office of the General

Registrar.

The General Registrar was the centralized replacement for

a registrar of voters in every precinct. Beginning in 1971 each

Virginia locality relied on the General Registrar as the single

registration official who maintained the voter rolls throughout the

locality. Later the Constitution was amended to include the office

of General Registrar. (Art II § 8)

Under the 1970 changes, the Commonwealth was the first state

to create a centralized voter database, and among the first to use the

central system to allow transfers between localities when a voter

moved. The centralized system prevented multiple registrations

and helped push Virginia to the forefront of voter list maintenance.

The General Registrar was and continues to be, the official charged

with adding, changing, transferring, and deleting voter records

from the Virginia list.

The new General Registrar would still be appointed by a three

member Electoral Board, all of whom are appointed by party.

However the General Registrar wore no party label, could not

participate in party politics, could hold no other office, nor be an

employee of any elected officer.

This new paradigm was meant to create an autonomous entity,

theoretically free from the type of party control that had typically

influenced the election rolls for their own benefit. Case law in the

1980’s reinforced this independence and prohibited the practice

of removing a registrar for party affiliation when the Governor

changed. Another case prohibited the registrar’s office from being

anywhere but in a publicly accessible building.

As the legal challenges of elections grew, the office of the

registrar evolved. Each General Assembly session added language

to §24.1. The title also grew through litigation, more Federal Acts,

and a continually expanding electorate.

By 1992 §24.1 was so piecemealed and disorganized the

Virginia Code Commission undertook the

job of re-codifying the Title into the 10

separate and distinct chapters of §24.2, the

title Virginia Elections operate under today.

Virginia’s Election Laws have continued

to transform and evolve. Each year the

Virginia General Assembly will, on average,

consider 200 individual election related

bills. Since the re-codification in 1993

the 180 page §24.2 has grown to over 400

pages of Code in 2017. State law, Federal

Acts, and Court rulings continue to shape

the Commonwealth’s elections. Virginia’s

General Registrars, now also referred to as

Directors of Election, have evolved with the

law to keep Virginia’s Elections among the

Continued on next page

Legislative Counsel

John G. “Chip” Dicks

FutureLaw, LLC

1802 Bayberry Court, Suite 403

Richmond, Virginia 23226

(804) 225-5507 (Direct Dial)

chipdicks@futurelaw.net

(804) 225-5508 (Fax)

www.futurelaw.net