Amendment 4 (1976)

Voter Residency Requirements

Amends

Article II. Franchise and Officers

Section 1. Qualifications of voters

Section 2. Registration of voters

Summary

This measure eliminated a length of residency requirement for voting, as well as extending the time limits on voting in a precinct after moving from it.

Ballot Question

Shall Sections 1 and 2 of Article II of the Constitution of Virginia be amended to eliminate length of residence as a qualification to vote and to extend the time a voter may vote in his precinct after moving from it?

NOTE: In 1975-76, six proposed Constitutional changes were bundled into one resolution and referendum bill. Since these were separate questions and issues — indeed, one of them was rejected by voters — it makes sense to consider these separate amendments. For more, please see How to Count Amendments.

Article II. Franchise and Officers

Section 1. Qualification of voters

In elections by the people, the qualifications of voters shall be as follows: Each voter shall be a citizen of the United States, shall be eighteen years of age, shall fulfill the residence requirements set forth in this section, and shall be registered to vote pursuant to this article. No person who has been convicted of a felony shall be qualified to vote unless his civil rights have been restored by the Governor or other appropriate authority. As prescribed by law, no person adjudicated to be mentally incompetent shall be qualified to vote until his competency has been reestablished.

The residence requirements shall be that each voter shall have been be a resident of the Commonwealth for six months and of the precinct where he votes for thirty days. A person who is qualified to vote except for having moved his residence from one precinct to another fewer than thirty days prior to an election may in the following November general election and in any such intervening election vote in the precinct from which he has moved. Residence, for all purposes of qualification to vote, requires both domicile and a place of abode. The General Assembly may provide, in elections for President and Vice-President of the United States, a residence requirement of less than six months and alternatives to registration for new residents of the Commonwealth.

Any person who will be qualified with respect to age to vote at the next general election shall be permitted to register in advance and also to vote in any intervening primary or special election.

Section 2. Registration of voters

The General Assembly shall provide by law for the registration of all persons otherwise qualified to vote who have met the residence requirements contained in this article, and shall ensure that the opportunity to register is made available. Registrations accomplished prior to the effective date of this section shall be effective hereunder. The registration records shall not be closed to new or transferred registrations more than thirty days before the election in which they are to be used.

Applications to register shall require the applicant to provide under oath the following information on a standard form: full name, including the maiden name of a woman, if married; age; date and place of birth; marital status; occupation; social security number, if any; whether the applicant is presently a United States citizen; address and place of abode and length date of residence in the Commonwealth and in the precinct; place and time of any previous registrations to vote; and whether the applicant has ever been adjudicated to be mentally incompetent or convicted of a felony, and if so, under what circumstances the applicant’s right to vote has been restored. Except as otherwise provided in this Constitution, all applications to register shall be completed in person before the registrar and by or at the direction of the applicant and signed by the applicant, unless physically disabled. No fee shall be charged to the applicant incident to an application to register.

Nothing in this article shall preclude the General Assembly from requiring as a prerequisite to registration to vote the ability of the applicant to read and complete in his own handwriting the application to register.

https://law.lis.virginia.gov/constitution/article2/section1/

https://law.lis.virginia.gov/constitution/article2/section2/