Interesting election law bills that have already been defeated in the Virginia legislature this year are:

1. SB 507, which forces all qualified parties to nominate by primary, lost in the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee on January 21. Current law lets them choose whether to nominate by primary or convention.

2. SB 474, which deletes the ability of incumbents to dictate to their own party how that party nominates in that incumbent’s race for re-election (either convention or primary), lost in the same committee on January 21.

3. HB 645, which puts party labels on the general election ballot for partisan county office, lost in the House Privileges Committee on January 24.

Two bills to ask applicants on a voter registration form to choose a party, or independent status, have not moved, so are likely to fail. They are HB 31 and HB 55.

A bill that seem likely to pass is HB 105, which says that write-ins (for office other than President) will no longer be counted unless it appears the write-in candidate might have won. That bill passed the House on January 22, by 83-14. Also likely to pass is SB 319, which moves the non-presidential primary from the second Tuesday in June to the third Tuesday in June.