HB623 - Rights of voters; covered practices, civil cause of action, standing, jurisdiction, and venue.

1 Co-Sponsor

Rights of voters; covered practices; civil cause of action; standing, jurisdiction, and venue. Provides that, in addition to voters who are members of a protected class and the Attorney General, any organization whose membership includes voters who are members of a protected class or any organization whose mission, in whole or in part, is to ensure voting access shall be entitled to institute a civil cause of action for alleged violations of certain laws related to the rights of voters. The bill provides that the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond shall have jurisdiction over such actions and such actions shall be subject to expedited pretrial and trial proceedings and receive an automatic calendar preference. The bill allows the governing body of any county or city to establish, by ordinance, a plan each year for the number and location of voter satellite offices and the dates and hours of operation of such satellite offices for all elections to be held in the county or city that year. The bill also adds to the definition of "covered practice" any change that reduces the number of voter satellite offices in a locality or reduces the number of days or the hours of operation of a voter satellite office in a locality or that deviates from the plan established by the governing body each year. Rights of voters; covered practices; civil cause of action; standing, jurisdiction, and venue. Provides that, in addition to voters who are members of a protected class and the Attorney General, any organization whose membership includes voters who are members of a protected class or any organization whose mission, in whole or in part, is to ensure voting access shall be entitled to institute a civil cause of action for alleged violations of certain laws related to the rights of voters. The bill provides that the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond shall have jurisdiction over such actions and such actions shall be subject to expedited pretrial and trial proceedings and receive an automatic calendar preference. The bill allows the governing body of any county or city to establish, by ordinance, a plan each year for the number and location of voter satellite offices and the dates and hours of operation of such satellite offices for all elections to be held in the county or city that year. The bill also adds to the definition of "covered practice" any change that reduces the number of voter satellite offices in a locality or reduces the number of days or the hours of operation of a voter satellite office in a locality or that deviates from the plan established by the governing body each year.