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Committee weighs federal-style 'totality of circumstances' language in voting bill
Summary
Counsel told the Government Operations & Military Affairs committee the draft copies federal multifactor language and said the statute is silent on many factors; members debated whether singling out a single example creates an exclusive list and asked for side-by-side materials comparing prior drafts and Virginia/federal law.
Counsel for the Government Operations & Military Affairs committee reviewed a draft voting-rights provision and told members the statute "is silent as to what some of the other possible factors could be" and that enforcement decisions would rest with the attorney general's office and, ultimately, the courts.
The debate centered on subsection b, which lists the "extent to which members of a protected class have been elected to office" as one circumstance that "may be…
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