Legislation filed ahead of the upcoming legislative session in Virginia would require the commonwealth to use security paper and watermarks on absentee ballots.
House Bill 1566, submitted last week by Delegate W. Chad Green (R-Seaford), would require all ballots requested by Virginia’s absentee voters to be “printed on security paper that incorporates a visible watermark,” in order to demonstrate the absentee ballot is authentic. The watermarks and security paper must nonetheless maintain “the absolute secrecy of the ballot.”
If successful, Virginia would join a number of states with similar requirements for their absentee ballots, including Tennessee, Kansas, and California.
In both Kansas and Tennessee, lawmakers successfully passed legislation in 2022 to require watermarks on ballots beginning in 2024, with Tennessee requiring ballots contain a watermark to provide a “voter-verifiable paper audit trail,” and Kansas requiring “a unique mark or stamp located on the ballot,” in order for a tabulating machine to process the vote.
California similarly requires local election offices to request a specific ballot tent and watermark from California’s Secretary of State in order for an election to be conducted.
Such initiatives have failed in other states, including Georgia, where lawmakers in the State House successfully passed legislation to require watermarks on ballots in January, but the State Senate ultimately tabled the bill.
Governor Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order in August that codified existing election integrity initiatives, including procedures for testing and certification of ballot counting machines, as well as implementing instructions for election officials who encounter non-citizens who attempt to vote.
That executive order came as Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares successfully removed about 1,500 non-citizens from the commonwealth’s voter rolls after the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Virginia over federal prosecutors.
“While I am gratified the Court moved so quickly, I remain deeply concerned and alarmed that the Biden-Harris administration chose to execute this maneuver just 25 days before an election,” said Miyares in an October statement after the legal victory.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Del. Chad Green” by Del. Chad Green.
