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Privileges And Elections

Friday, February 13, 2026·34m·▶ Watch / Listen

The House Privileges and Elections Committee advanced nine bills — including measures on ranked choice voting, voter list maintenance, automatic voter registration, and campaign depositories — while striking two from the docket and carrying over three others. The most contested action was reporting HB 505, a cooling-off period bill for local government employees voting on matters related to their former employment, which passed narrowly 12 to 8 after substantive debate over its scope.

Key Actions

·HB 82 – Absentee Ballot Receipt Deadline ExtensionPassed

+ 14 more actions

Controversies

HB 505 – Scope of cooling-off period for local government employees

Robert S. Bloxom, Jr. argued that someone employed by a school system who votes on the school budget would appear to have a conflict of interest, and expressed concern that the bill would catch up far more people than anticipated, pointing to small towns of 200 people in his district. John Chilton McAuliff responded that the substitute conforms to current code and does not change the existing rule, stating: 'Right now, somebody can both serve on the school board...and work for the agency and vote on the budget. So it does not change that.'

+ 2 more controversies

Notable Quotes

“It's probably the number one thing I heard during my short campaign was why. Why is our primary period only 5 days long? And so looking into that, it's because we have state law that says it has to be five days long. So this bill creates a very narrow exception. You'll see on lines 25 through 27 for General assembly special elections between December 10 and March 1.”

Garrett McGuire — McGuire, the patron of HB 1528, was explaining why the bill proposes extending the special election primary window from five to seven days for General Assembly special elections falling between December 10 and March 1.

+ 3 more quotes

Votes

Strike HB 23 from the docketPassed
Report HB 82Passed
Report HB 111 with substitutePassed
Report HB 215Passed
Carry over HB 235 to 2027Passed
Report HB 319Passed
Carry over HB 493Passed
Report HB 505 with substitutePassed
Report HB 630Passed
Incorporate HB 966 into HB 972Passed
Report HB 972 with substitutePassed
Strike HB 213 from the docketPassed
Report HB 1150 with substitutePassed
Report HB 1185 with substitutePassed
Report HB 1483Passed
Report HB 1528Passed
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TranscriptPreview
Good morning. I call this meeting of the House Privileges and Elections Committee to order. If the clerk will please open the rolls and members mark your presence. And we are sending our prayers with delegate Converse Fowler and her family. And the clerk may close the rolls. We do have a quorum. So we have on our agenda today the election Administration subcommittee report a few bills that are still before us and then a first hearing for House Bill 1528. We will only be taking some public testimony on House Bill 1528 because we have heard the others. So I will turn to Chair Gl and we will have the election Administration subcommittee report. Chair Glass. Gratitude. Madam Chair. The first bill we have is House Bill 23. It provides that all primaries for offices to be filled at the November election in election in presidential election year shall be held on the date of the presidential primary. The subcommittee recommends striking from the docket on a vote of 8 to 0. And I so move. Second. Second. It's been moved improperly seconded that we would strike House Bill 23. Are there any questions? If the clerk will…
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