Del. Chris Runion

Bail for a person accused of a crime that is an act of violence; notice to attorney for the Commonwealth. Requires a magistrate to transmit within 24 hours a copy of the checklist for bail determination form to the attorney for the Commonwealth when a magistrate conducts a bail hearing for a person arrested on a warrant or capias for an act of violence. The bill also provides that transmission of such copy to the attorney for the Commonwealth may be by facsimile or other electronic means. This bill is identical to SB 614.

Special hunting and fishing license for certaindisabled veterans. Authorizes resident veterans who have a service-connected disability of at least 30 percent to receive from the Departmentof Wildlife Resources, at no cost or a reduced cost depending onthe veteran's disability rating, a lifetime license to hunt and freshwaterfish. Current law authorizes the provision of such license at nocost to a veteran who is totally and permanently disabled and at half-cost to a veteran who is 70 percent disabled.

Ukraine; Russian invasion. Expressing thesense of the General Assembly on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Commending Bob Brown.

Group Violence Intervention Board; Divisionof Group Violence Intervention; Project Ceasefire Grant Fund; ProjectExit Grant Fund; report. Establishes the Group Violence InterventionBoard to coordinate and assist federal, state, and local group violenceintervention efforts. The bill also establishes within the Departmentof Criminal Justice Services (the Department) the Division of GroupViolence Intervention (the Division), to be headed by an executivedirector appointed by the Director of the Department. The bill providesthat the Division is responsible for (i) coordinating the effortsof members of state and local law enforcement, community members,and social services providers to combat group violence; (ii) servingas a clearinghouse for research, best practices, and strategies thatmay be utilized in the implementation, execution, and evaluationof group violence interventions; and (iii) implementing and administeringvarious federal, state, and local grant funds that aid group violenceintervention efforts. Finally, the bill creates the Project CeasefireGrant Fund, which provides money to organizations that are involvedin group violence intervention efforts, and creates the Project ExitGrant Fund, which provides money to organizations that assist formergang members or individuals attempting to leave gangs.

Elections; campaign finance; disclosure reports;searchable electronic database. Requires the Department of Electionsto provide an interface to the campaign finance database maintainedby the Department that allows users to easily search for and sortinformation by individual candidates and types of elections, offices,committees, and donors; donations, expenditures, loans, and othercategories of information included in campaign finance reports; andlate filings, incomplete filings, and other violations. The interfaceshall also provide users tools for manipulating and exporting data.The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2023.

Elections. Applies the provisions of the Virginia Personnel Act to the chief deputy and confidential assistant for policy or administration for the Department of Elections. The bill also (i) expands the membership of the State Board of Elections from five members to six members with equal representation given to both parties; (ii) gives the State Board of Elections the authority and duty to appoint the Commissioner of Elections of the Department of Elections by a supermajority vote; (iii) requires the Department of Elections to conduct periodic assessments to ensure that voters are assigned to the correct state legislative and congressional districts based on their residential addresses; (iv) requires the State Registrar of Vital Records to transmit lists of deceased persons weekly instead of the current monthly requirement; (v) requires the general registrars to use information in the lists of deceased persons to promptly remove deceased persons from the voter registration system; (vi) requires voters to present a valid form of photo identification when they vote; (vii) provides that audits of ballot scanner machines must take place prior to the certification of election results; (viii) provides that absentee ballots must be collected daily from absentee ballot drop-off locations by certain people and according to procedures for securing such ballots; (ix) provides that a postmark on an absentee ballot must be legible and no longer includes other official indicia of confirmation of mailing by a postal or delivery service; and (x) creates work groups to evaluate the performance of the Virginia voter registration system and to develop and implement a plan to provide oversight to local election administration to assess risks to Virginia's administration of elections. Portions of the bill affecting the composition of the State Board of Elections and the appointment of the Commissioner of Elections have a delayed effective date of January 1, 2023.

Elections; absentee voting; witness signature requirement; additional information. Makes an absentee voter's failure to have a witness sign the absentee ballot envelope a material omission that renders the ballot void. Additionally, the bill requires an absentee voter to include the last four number of his social security number and his date of birth with the voter affirmation statement on such ballot envelope.

Disabled veteran special license plate; survivingspouse. Authorizes a disabled veteran special license plate issuedto a disabled veteran to be transferred, upon his death, to his unremarriedsurviving spouse.

Virginia Freedom of Information Act; Virginia Parole Board member votes. Provides that individual votes of the members of the Virginia Parole Board are public records and subject to the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. This bill is identical to SB 5.