The Virginia House Privileges and Elections Committee has passed SB 624, which now says no one (except election administrators) may have access to the list of which voters voted in the last primary or the last election. The bill is on second reading in the House.

This bill started out in the Senate doing almost the exact opposite. The original bill expanded the list of groups that may see this list, to include groups that encourage voter participation. The existing law says that parties, candidates, and political committees may see the list. A group that wanted to use the list to encourage voter participation had sued the state, saying if parties, candidates, and political committees may see the list, there is no state interest in preventing it from seeing the list also. The somewhat ironic conclusion is that now no groups will be able to see the list, if the bill as currently amended becomes law.