Thank you for the opportunity to submit written testimony on the proposed changes to 1VAC20-45-40. I write today on behalf of my organization, the Fair Elections Legal Network.

The Fair Elections Legal Network (FELN) is a nonpartisan organization based in Washington, DC, with a focus on election administration policy and practice. Since our founding in 2006, we have provided information and materials to voter registration and civic engagement groups across the county and have advocated for policy and practices that make the ballot box accessible for all eligible voters. We work with registrars in Virginia and have met with the Board of Elections on numerous occasions to address election administration issues. Additionally, I am a Virginia licensed attorney and serve as an election officer in Fairfax County.

The Fair Elections Legal Network writes in opposition to the proposed changes to 1VAC20-45-40. The proposed amendments reclassifying the lack of a street identifier or a generation suffix from nonmaterial to material omissions in the absentee balloting process serves only to disenfranchise otherwise eligible votes. As such, we urge the State Board of Elections to vote against this proposed change.

The discussed reasoning for the change in requirements on absentee materials is the ability of electoral boards to identify the voter who has completed the submitted ballot. Under this explanation, a voter’s ballot is incapable of being counted unless a street identifier or a generational suffix is included. This is in spite of the fact that an official VERIS label is included on absentee return envelopes which clearly includes identifying information for the absentee voter. Under the current standard for absentee ballots, this information is of little to no assistance in verifying the identity of an absentee voter as that information has already been provided.

It is important to note that not all voters have or regularly use generational suffixes in everyday business. Often those who do have suffixes switch between using the suffix and not listing it on official documents or forms. Testimony from SBE member Don Palmer at the SBE meeting which debated this proposal indicated that he is not always aware of whether he has included his own generational suffix on official documents. If those who serve on the SBE are unsure of whether their records include their generational suffix, how should we expect all voters across the Commonwealth to remember this information?

Applications for absentee ballots are already examined before an absentee ballot is issued with a list of information already required for the returned ballot to be counted. Each mail absentee ballot comes with VERIS information on the return envelope. As such, these proposed changes serve to do nothing more than possibly disenfranchise eligible votes.  

The General Assembly recently removed the absence of a middle initial from the list of material omissions on an absentee ballot, indicating that it was nonessential in determining the identity of an absentee voter. The information fields debated today are of a similar quality as those recently removed from the material omissions list. FELN therefore urges the SBE to vote against the proposed change and leave street identifiers and generational suffixes as nonmaterial omissions.