I oppose SB 813. It is an effort to enshrine and saddle Virginia with a version of the poorly worded and much litigated section of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). This bill fails to provide a definition of systematic or identify which process in the Virginia Election Code qualify as systematic: “… any program the purpose of which is to systematically remove…”. Were this a genuine attempt to protect both voters and election integrity, it would identify, specifically by code and section, which election processes qualify as systematic and are thereby subject to the proposed 90 day restriction. It would also require all future legislation restricted as systematic to be so identified at the time of passage. This would allow for honest debate prior to passage as to the merits of the restriction rather than leave open a door for litigation after passage, further eroding trust in Virginia’s elections. Murky and ideologically driven legislation is not in the best interest of electorate and should be dismissed out of hand by legislators who have taken an oath to represent the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia. I urge a no vote on SB 813.

VSC NAACP supports SB813.

Committee members, writing on behalf of Virginia Institute Action, I encourage you to vote no on SB813 which would interrupt the processes that keep Virginia’s registered voter list consistently updated to reflect individuals that have moved, as well as other updates. The current processes need refinement but this change would take voter list maintenance in the wrong direction, not a step forward in the right direction. Any problems that exist with voter list maintenance processes have stemmed from inaccurate data, not the timing of the voter list maintenance processes. Because of Virginia’s many elections this bill goes too far in limiting the amount of time available to perform important systematic processes that keep Virginia’s voter roll accurate and current, as required by federal law. Please vote no on SB813, thank you!

This bill was inspired by the incorrect voter purge of naturalized citizens. We are grateful the patron Senator Rouse for his leadership. The Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights supports this bill, and urges the committee to vote yes.

SB813 I oppose this bill. Voter Rolls should be current, up to date and accurate. An accurate Voter roll saves money for elections and for the campaigns. Only eligible voters should be on Virginia Voter lists and the General Registrars need more time to be allowed to remove ineligible Voters. Non-Citizens should not have more opportunity to remain on the voter rolls. Currently, they are notified twice by the GR. The first letter is to verify if they are a citizen, with 14 days to respond and then after 30 days a cancelation letter is sent. If the voter truly is eligible to vote, they have a month to contact the Election Office. This current process is working well. Let General Registrars do their job. Do not expand the period that ineligible voters are prohibited from being removed from the Voter Rolls.

The League supports SB 813, as passed by the Senate. The bill provides for a 90-day quiet period before Virginia elections, when the state cannot conduct systematic voter purges. It parallels the federal law requiring a 90-day quiet period leading up to federal elections. The bill also recognizes that the mail delivery service is not reliable, so voters need twice the time to receive and respond to notices of impending cancellation.

VSC NAACP supports SB991.

Thank you, Senator Williams Graves for introducing this legislation! Please support SB991. This legislation would extend the close of books for voter registration to ten (10) days prior to the election, which is the same deadline to request an absentee ballot. This would promote voter access. This would also reduce the number of early voting Same Day (SDR) Provisional Ballots. In November 2024, Norfolk had 1,000 SDRs during early voting. Each SDR requires research, processing, and review by the local Registrar's office and approval by the Electoral Board. This legislation would enable one deadline for voters to register and/or request an absentee ballot. Resources within the Registrars' offices would also benefit in time management savings. Please support SB991. Thank you!

I support SB991. With current technology General Registrars do not need 21 days to prepare the voter lists for the election pollbooks. And by leaving Voter registration open longer, VA citizens have more time to register to vote before the election. Hopefully, the extra 11 days to register to vote provided in this bill will help to reduce the number of Same Day Registrations, which have placed a tremendous burden on Election Officers in the polling locations and on General Registrars having to process them immediately after the election and on Electoral Boards having to process thousands of them after the election.

The League of Women Voters of Virginia supports SB991, as passed by the Senate. This bill would allow eligible citizens the opportunity to register to vote for an additional 11 days before an election and still cast a regular ballot, whether voting in-person during early voting, by absentee ballot, or on election day. More voters would avoid having to cast provisional ballots through the same day registration process. As we all know, the same day registration process plays a vital role to enfranchise eligible citizens, but the rule adds burdens to everyone involved--voters and election officials alike.

I strongly support SB1119.

VSC NAACP Strongly supports the passage of SJ248 and SJ247.

Republicans have a duty to offer FLOOR amendments to this bill to show Virginia how radical SJ 247 really is. It provides, “… every individual has the fundamental right to reproductive freedom … relating to one’s own ... contraception, abortion care, miscarriage management, and fertility care.” These rights apply to “individuals” with no age minimum, including teen girls and boys such as: surgical/drug induced sterilization, sex/gender changes, surrogate pregnancy, humans, gene-editing, and cloning now illegal (VA Code, 32.1-12,21-22). Children under 18 will be able to access birth control, abortion, sterilization, and sex changes without parental notice/consent. Therefore, SJ 247 abolishes the age of sexual consent. Virginia’s criminal sexual trafficking laws protecting minors from predatory adults will be unenforceable because minors would have the legal capacity to “consent” to such sexual behavior. Laws prohibiting prostitution would be unconstitutional restraints on “reproductive freedom” because individuals, including minors, would have a fundamental right to sexual relations of any type under the Democrats RFA. Likewise, parents would have no ability to sue Planned Parenthood or adult sexual predators including school counselors securing sex changes for minor students behind parents backs because the RFA states, “The Commonwealth shall not … take adverse action against any individual for aiding or assisting another individual in exercising such other individual’s right to reproductive freedom with such other individual’s voluntary consent.” Secondly, claiming that abortion is safe (for women) is a successful though false marketing claim used to keep abortion legal which derives from severe limits on collecting and identifying abortion complications. Neither the U.S. Centers for Disease Control nor Virginia developed a comprehensive abortion complication reporting system to identify more than a miniscule portion of abortion complications occurring during an abortion. This makes it impossible to link abortion with adverse maternal mortality or delivery problems. The CDC /Virginia covered up abortion complications. In 1990, I and a George Washington Medical School faculty member surveyed Virginia doctors who might have treated women in 1989 for abortion complications known at the time of the abortion. We found 230 complications for 33,200 abortions, or 676% more complications than CDC/Virginia officials reported in a similar time period. Women lie about their abortions. PP’s notes, “Underreporting of abortions is a persistent problem … irrespective of the research design or study population. … underreporting appears to be ubiquitous … .” (Family Planning Perspectives, Sept./Oct. 1996, 228-23.) Eight other federally paid for surveys show between 41% and 71% of women lie about their abortion. Women who lie about their abortions don’t report complications and they cannot be happy about their “reproductive” freedom. As a General Assembly member I asked Virginia’s Medicaid director to cost match similar groups of Medicaid women — 325 who had their children vs. 325 who had abortions. From 1989-94, “The women with legally induced abortions had 532 claims for subsequent health interventions. The women with normal deliveries had 307 claims … for subsequent health interventions. … reimbursements for … women with abortions was $123,800 and for … women with normal deliveries was $66,900.”

I ask that you support SJ247 to protect fundamental rights to reproductive freedom. Many times women have to make the difficult choice to end a pregnancy when there are fatal fetal anomalies or the mother's life is in danger. This is a decision that should be made between a woman and her doctor. It amazes me that the same people who say the government should NOT tell them to get the COVID vaccine are the same ones who want to have a say when it comes to the very private decision of reproductive healthcare. Please support this Constitutional Amendment so we can go through the process again next year then let the public vote.

I am commenting on behalf of the 200+ women and men of all ages from the New River Valley of Virginia who are part of Our Bodies Our Choice, a non-partisan organization committed to restoring reproductive rights and justice. This group was founded a year ago by a group of women in their 70s and 80s who watched with horror the rapid and nearly complete loss of reproductive freedom in nearly half of the states since Roe v Wade was overturned, just two years ago. We were young women who lived through an era where contraception was not readily available and abortion was illegal. We know what this was like, and we know how hard these protections were to achieve decades ago. We have spent this year educating our community about these unacceptable threats to our reproductive freedom. Over half of OBOC members are students and young adults for whom contraception, and abortion if needed, are an utterly expected part of their lives. They cannot imagine that it could be taken away. Yet that is exactly what is happening in some states. We strongly urge the committee to support SB247 to ensure that reproductive freedom will be protected in Virginia. How could it not be? Patricia Hyer, Chair Our Bodies Our Choice 703 Willard Drive Blacksburg, VA 24060 540-250-5618

Please support SJ247. The right to make decisions about my own body is the essence of freedom. It is integral to my human dignity and my opportunity to fully participate as an adult citizen.

The League of Women Voters of Virginia supports SJ247. Every Virginian deserves the freedom to make personal healthcare decisions without government interference. These decisions include those related to comprehensive reproductive healthcare – prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, abortion care, miscarriage management and fertility care. SJ247 will guarantee that the state cannot deny or interfere with an individual’s reproductive freedom in their most personal healthcare decisions. Protecting reproductive freedom through a constitutional amendment ensures that reproductive decisions remain beyond arbitrary government control, thus securing reproductive healthcare and rights for all Virginians now and for future generations. We urge you to support SJ247.

Attention: General Assembly Members Many Legislators (D and some R) are voting for two immoral amendments to the Virginia Constitution (Bills HJ9 and SJ249) intend to enshrine sodomy into the VA Constitution by permitting same-sex marriage (SSM). Currently, in our constitution, marriage is defined as a union between a man and woman, as God intended. 1) This change will encourage thousands more to fall into the dangerous and demonic bondage of sodomy. 2) It will make it more difficult to restore Biblical marriage once Obergefell vs Hodges 2015 is overturned. Remember, Roe was overturned. 3) It will enshrine the filthy act of sodomy as an accepted behavior. This act is so filthy that 88% of male homosexuals report getting an enema before anal penetration (PubMed). 4) Legitimizes an unnatural lifestyle that greatly increases rectal infections, fissures, trauma, hemorrhoids, cancers, HIV, STDs and death. The rectum was not created for penetration and is usually injured. 81% of new HIV cases among men were of gays (CDC 2013). 5) Passing this amendment will treasure up greater judgements from God against a rebellious and sinful people. Isaiah 5:20 says “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil …” 6) Children raised in SSM are demonstrably worse off than hetero homes. Amendments to allow unlimited abortions in Virginia (HJ1, SJ247) 1) In 2024, 35,000 homicides against the unborn took place in the Commonwealth. Prov. 5:17 “God hates … hands that kill the innocent.” 2) Women’s rights don’t seem to apply to unborn girls who don’t have a choice or voice? What about the rights of fathers? 3) 1 John 3:15 says, “no murderer has eternal life residing in him.” Voting for this amendment will make you complicit in mass murder. Please research these matters more fully and vote AGAINST these detestable bills.

VSC NAACP Strongly supports the passage of SJ248 and SJ247.

The League of Women Voters of Virginia supports SJ248. The League was formed from the fight for women's suffrage. We understand that democracy is the most representative when everyone has a voice. The voters we are advocating for have served their time and want to rejoin society. Most have jobs and pay taxes and may be a neighbor or someone you know. Voting is an important civic duty and an important way to participate in how communities are represented through those we elect and the laws that are passed. Everyone deserves a second chance and voters deserve the opportunity to voice their support, or opposition, at the ballot.

I ask you to support SJ248. The amendment provides that a person adjudicated by a court of competent jurisdiction as lacking the capacity to understand the act of voting shall not be entitled to vote during this period of incapacity until his capacity has been reestablished as prescribed by law. This wording is an improvement over current law. Currently, according to a JLARC study, twelve thousand Virginians have been deprived of the right to vote when a court appointed a guardian. Some of them indeed lack the capacity to understand the act of voting, but others, while needing a guardian, do understand voting and have political opinions and should be able to exercise this fundamental right.

Please support SJ249 - marriage between two adult persons. I am heterosexual and am in favor of any adult, regardless of sex, gender or race, wishing to marry be able to do so. They should have the same rights as I do.

I am the House of Delegates sponsor of the 2006 voter approved one-man, one-woman Marshall-Newman Marriage Amendment: “That only a union between one man and one woman may be a marriage valid in or recognized by this Commonwealth and its political subdivisions … .” Virginia’s Marriage Amendment received 1,328,537 “yes” votes, to 999,687 “no” votes. We are in this quandary because the US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Obergefel vs. Hodges (6/26/2015) that the 14th Amendment requires states to issue marriage licenses to two persons of the same sex and recognize same sex “marriages” from other states. To undo the effects of the 2006 Marriage vote, Democrats introduced S.J. 249 which abolishes the traditional definition of Marriage voters put into our Constitution, but fails to replace it with a real definition! While odd, the 2015 Obergefel decision striking down the traditional one-man, one-woman marriage standard of roughly 40 states also had no marriage definition. Chief Justice Roberts’ noted: • “… petitioners conceding that they are not aware of any society that permitted same-sex marriage before 2001;” • “It is striking how much of the majority’s reasoning would apply with equal force to the claim of a fundamental right to plural marriage;” • The majority justices, “portray everyone who does not share the majority’s ‘better informed understanding’ as bigoted.” The Democrats proposal states Virginia may not, “deny the issuance of a marriage license to two adult persons seeking a lawful marriage on the basis of the sex, gender, or race of such persons.” Democrats want language removed from Virginia’s Constitution: “ … assigned the rights, benefits, obligations, qualities, or effects of marriage.” While Democrats can’t think of any benefits or rights, from real marriage, The Marriage and Religion Institute notes: “Marriage is the foundational relationship for all of society. All other relationships in society stem from the father-mother relationship, and these other relationships thrive most if that father-mother relationship is simultaneously a close and a closed husband wife relationship.” MRI catalogues 164 practical individual and social benefits from natural marriage. The Democrats’ marriage repeal Amendment has no conscience or religious exemption protecting clerics or members of religious denominations, business owners and others with moral/ethical objections from having to support, endorse, recognize or participate in, contract for, provide professional services or publicly recognize what “Woke” ideology or social fashion calls “marriage.” Justice Roberts noted in Obergefel that not allowing a religious or similar exemption will cause problems for persons of Faith, “ … when … a religious college provides married student housing only to opposite-sex married couples, or a religious adoption agency declines to place children with same-sex married couples. ... the Solicitor General ... acknowledged ... tax exemptions of some religious institutions would be in question if they opposed same-sex marriage.” Democrats will close Christian adoption agencies that do not place children with "same-sex couples. Democrat’s want “gender” in Virginia’s Constitution which will adversely impact women’s and girls’ sports and privacy, broaden sexual harassment liability, eradicate parental consent over preventing schools or other third parties from providing sex change drugs/surgery.

Please support SJ249. This is personal for me and many of my friends. We need to know that our marriages are protected in Virginia. Parents I know want their LGBTQ children to have the opportunity to marry and have a family. Clergy I know have been performing marriage ceremonies for a decade without any issues. This change to the Virginia Constitution does not harm anyone and will make many people happy.

Attention: General Assembly Members Many Legislators (D and some R) are voting for two immoral amendments to the Virginia Constitution (Bills HJ9 and SJ249) intend to enshrine sodomy into the VA Constitution by permitting same-sex marriage (SSM). Currently, in our constitution, marriage is defined as a union between a man and woman, as God intended. 1) This change will encourage thousands more to fall into the dangerous and demonic bondage of sodomy. 2) It will make it more difficult to restore Biblical marriage once Obergefell vs Hodges 2015 is overturned. Remember, Roe was overturned. 3) It will enshrine the filthy act of sodomy as an accepted behavior. This act is so filthy that 88% of male homosexuals report getting an enema before anal penetration (PubMed). 4) Legitimizes an unnatural lifestyle that greatly increases rectal infections, fissures, trauma, hemorrhoids, cancers, HIV, STDs and death. The rectum was not created for penetration and is usually injured. 81% of new HIV cases among men were of gays (CDC 2013). 5) Passing this amendment will treasure up greater judgements from God against a rebellious and sinful people. Isaiah 5:20 says “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil …” 6) Children raised in SSM are demonstrably worse off than hetero homes. Amendments to allow unlimited abortions in Virginia (HJ1, SJ247) 1) In 2024, 35,000 homicides against the unborn took place in the Commonwealth. Prov. 5:17 “God hates … hands that kill the innocent.” 2) Women’s rights don’t seem to apply to unborn girls who don’t have a choice or voice? What about the rights of fathers? 3) 1 John 3:15 says, “no murderer has eternal life residing in him.” Voting for this amendment will make you complicit in mass murder. Please research these matters more fully and vote AGAINST these detestable bills.