On February 28, the Virginia Senate Privileges and Elections Committee unanimously passed two bills that will help petitions this year, for both primary candidates and general election candidates. Both bills had previously passed the House.

HB 1151 says 2012 petitions are valid if they use the old U.S. House districts from the 2001-2010 period. This is important for statewide petitions for president and U.S. Senate, because statewide petitions have a distribution requirement. Such statewide petitions need 400 signatures from each U.S. House district.

HB 736 moves the 2012 non-presidential primary from June to August, and also moves the petition deadline for general election petitions for non-presidential office from June to August as well. This gives more time for minor party and independent candidates petitioning to run for Congress.