On January 23, HB 216 was defeated in the House Privileges and Elections Committee. It would have provided that party labels be printed on the general election ballot for local partisan office. Currently many Virginia elections for local office are partisan, but there are no party labels on the ballot.

Also on January 23, HB 218 was defeated in the same committee. It would have provided that for statewide office, primaries must be used, instead of conventions.

On January 24, SB 126 passed the Senate on second reading, unanimously. It repeals the law that lets incumbents dictate to their party whether the party should use a primary or a party meeting for that particular office. That law was held unconstitutional last year.