HB 658 Virginia House of Delegates · 2025 Regular Session

Elections; allows for any local or constitutional office to be conducted by ranked choice voting.

Summary
Elections; conduct of election; ranked choice voting; locally elected offices; report. Allows elections for any local or constitutional office to be conducted by ranked choice voting. Under current law, only elections of members of a county board of supervisors or a city council are allowed to be conducted by ranked choice voting. The bill also clarifies requirements for conducting elections using ranked choice voting and requires results for elections conducted by ranked choice voting to be reported along with other results reported on election night, except that such results must clearly be identified as preliminary and based on the first rankings in a ranked choice voting election. The bill provides that final tabulation for an election for a local or constitutional office that is not shared by more than one county or city is required to be conducted on the same day as other results are canvassed by the local electoral board and that final tabulation for and election for a local or constitutional office that is shared by more than one county or city is required to be conducted at a centralized facility under the supervision of the Department of Elections. The bill specifies that ranking data is required to be made publicly available by the Department and requires the State Board of Elections to provide standards and to approve vote tabulating software for use with existing voting systems in elections conducted by ranked choice voting. The bill also limits a risk-limiting audit of an election conducted using ranked choice voting to the first choice rankings reported on voting systems. Finally, the bill directs the Department to review the testing and approval framework for voting equipment in the Commonwealth and submit a report of such review no later than the first day of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly.
Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2024
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Jan 9, 2024 Last action Nov 18, 2024
Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
8
Key actions
2
Committee
4
Jan 22, 2024
Lower · Passed
Subcommittee recommends continuing to 2025 (Voice Vote)
lower
Jan 22, 2024
Lower · Passed
House subcommittee amendments and substitutes offered
lower
Jan 19, 2024
Committee
Assigned P & E sub: Election Administration
lower
Jan 9, 2024
Committee
Referred to Committee on Privileges and Elections
lower
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Photo of Josh Cole
Josh Cole
DDemocratic
VA
65