The Campaign and Candidates Subcommittee advanced seven bills — including measures on candidate address confidentiality, AI disclosure in campaign ads, election worker protections, and impersonation of local officials — while tabling one bill and striking another from the docket. The most contested items, HB 835 and HB 212, each cleared the subcommittee 6 to 2 despite member objections over the scope of a FOIA exemption and the legal effect of removing a 'willfully' standard from criminal statute.
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Megan Ryan of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government raised concern that the bill as written places no time limit on the FOIA exemption for candidates who have lost, asking: 'How long does this protection last? 20 years from now, Is the state board of elections still going to be prohibited from releasing any information about these candidates?' Delegate McClure responded that she deliberately omitted a time limitation because it would create an administrative burden for the Department of Elections and stated it is more important to keep all individuals safe regardless of whether they have lost.
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“According to the Virginia Fusion center, the Virginia State Police behavioral threat assessment and the management team received at least 100 threats against public officials and legislators in the past year alone, which is 108% increase from 2024.”
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Sign in to subscribeThe campaigns and campaigns and candidates committee will come to order. Madam Clerk, please open the roll for attendance. Looks like we have a quorum. Madam Clerk, please close the roll. And we do have one administrative action item. House Bill 1056 by Patron Phillips. He asked for us to strike from the docket. Is there a motion? So moved. There's a motion. And second, this is a recorded vote. Madam Clerk, please open the roll. Please cast your votes. Madam Clerk, please close the roll. That is stricken from the docket by six to zero. Up first, we will take Delegate McClure. Yes, Mr. Chair, I have HB 835. And HB 835 would enhance the safety and privacy of elected officials and candidates across the Commonwealth. The bill does two key things. It would allow candidates the opportunity to use their unique identifier assigned in the Virginia voter registration system that has their actual address in place of their residence address on required filings, petitions, campaign statements and other. This would also prohibit the release of a candidate's home address, phone number or email without the candidate's written consent. And further, if a candidate prefers to add their residential…
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