Virginia SB632 Address Confidentiality for Candidates and Elected Officials
Summary
Virginia SB632 was signed into law on April 6, 2026, granting address confidentiality protections to political candidates and elected officials. The law prohibits custodians from releasing a candidate's address, phone number, or email address in response to Virginia Freedom of Information Act requests. Candidates may now use their voter registration system unique identifier in place of a residence address on filings, and the State Board of Elections cannot require address disclosure on petitions.
What changed
Virginia SB632 adds new address confidentiality protections for candidates and elected officials under Virginia election law. The bill prohibits the release of candidate address, phone number, or email address under FOIA requests, permits candidates to use voter registration unique identifiers instead of residence addresses on filings, and bars the State Board of Elections from requiring address or unique identifier disclosure on pre-filing petitions. Elected officials gain the right to list a post office box address on voter registration rolls. Affected parties include candidates for state and local office, currently serving elected officials, elections officials, and custodians of public records subject to FOIA requests.
Compliance obligations arise primarily for the State Board of Elections, local registrars, and FOIA custodians, who must update procedures for handling candidate information requests and petition filings. Political candidates and elected officials concerned about personal safety can now shield their residence addresses from public disclosure, though they must proactively submit the proper identifier or PO box information to obtain protections. The delayed effective date of January 1, 2027 provides a transition period for administrative updates.
What to do next
- Update FOIA response procedures to withhold candidate contact information (address, phone, email)
- Modify candidate filing systems to accept voter registration unique identifiers in lieu of residence addresses
- Begin accepting post office box addresses from elected officials on voter registration lists
Source document (simplified)
ChangeBridge / Virginia / SB632 Signed by Governor SB632 Senate Bill Signed by Governor 2026-04-06
Elections; candidates and elected officials, confidentiality of personally identifiable information.
Elections; candidates and elected officials; address confidentiality. Prohibits the custodian of any filing made by a candidate from releasing the address, phone number, or email address of such candidate in response to a request made under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. The bill permits a candidate to provide the unique identifier assigned to him in the voter registration system pursuant to relevant law in place of his residence address on any candidate filing. The State Board of Elections is prohibited from requiring candidates to disclose their address or unique identifier on petitions prior to their being filed. The bill also adds elected officials to the list of people who may furnish, in addition to their residence street address, a post office box address located within the Commonwealth to be included in lieu of their street address on the lists of registered voters. The certificate of election delivered to the winner of an election is required to be accompanied by a notice that the person meets the qualifications for being granted protected voter status along with instructions for updating their voter registration in order to attain such status. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2027. This bill is identical to HB 835.
Bill Details
State Virginia
Session 2026 Regular Regular Session
Chamber Senate
Official Source lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/SB632
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Sponsors
Lashrecse Aird (Sen - D) Danny Diggs (Sen - R)
Action History
2026-04-06 Approved by Governor-Chapter 229 (effective 7/1/2026) 2026-04-06 Approved by Governor-Chapter 229 (effective 7/1/2026) 2026-03-10 S Fiscal Impact Statement from Department of Planning and Budget (SB632) 2026-03-10 Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 13, 2026 2026-03-10 S Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 10, 2026 2026-03-04 S Signed by President 2026-03-04 H Signed by Speaker 2026-03-04 S Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB632ER) 2026-03-04 S Enrolled 2026-02-27 S House amendment agreed to by Senate (21-Y 17-N 0-A) 2026-02-25 H Passed House with amendment (82-Y 15-N 0-A) 2026-02-25 H Engrossed by House as amended 2026-02-25 H Delegate Price Floor amendment agreed to 2026-02-25 H Read third time 2026-02-25 H Floor offered Delegate Price Amendment 2026-02-24 H Read second time 2026-02-20 H Reported from Privileges and Elections (19-Y 2-N) 2026-02-12 H Referred to Committee on Privileges and Elections 2026-02-12 H Read first time 2026-02-12 H Placed on Calendar 2026-02-09 S Read third time and passed Senate (21-Y 19-N 0-A) 2026-02-06 S Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute (Voice Vote) 2026-02-06 S Privileges and Elections Substitute agreed to 2026-02-06 S Read second time 2026-02-06 S Fiscal Impact Statement from Department of Planning and Budget (SB632) 2026-02-05 S Passed by for the day (Voice Vote) 2026-02-05 S Constitutional reading dispensed Block Vote (on 1st reading) (40-Y 0-N 0-A) 2026-02-05 S Rules suspended 2026-02-04 S Committee substitute printed 26107134D-S1 2026-02-03 S Reported from Privileges and Elections with substitute (11-Y 3-N) 2026-02-03 S Incorporates SB54 (Diggs) 2026-02-03 S Senate committee offered 2026-02-02 S Fiscal Impact Statement from Department of Planning and Budget (SB632) 2026-01-14 S Referred to Committee on Privileges and Elections 2026-01-14 S Prefiled and ordered printed; Offered 01-14-2026 26104683D
Votes
2026-02-03 Reported from Privileges and Elections with substitute (11-Y 3-N) Yea: 11 Nay: 3 2026-02-05 Constitutional reading dispensed (on 1st reading) (40-Y 0-N 0-A) Yea: 40 Nay: 0 2026-02-09 Read third time and passed Senate (21-Y 19-N 0-A) Yea: 21 Nay: 19 2026-02-20 Reported from Privileges and Elections (19-Y 2-N) Yea: 19 Nay: 2 2026-02-25 Passed House with amendment (82-Y 15-N 0-A) Yea: 82 Nay: 15 2026-02-27 House amendment agreed to by Senate (21-Y 17-N 0-A) Yea: 21 Nay: 17
Committee Referrals
2026-01-14 S Privileges and Elections 2026-02-12 H Privileges and Elections
Amendments
0000-00-00 Privileges and Elections Amendment 0000-00-00 Privileges and Elections Amendment 0000-00-00 Delegate Price Amendment 0000-00-00 House Amendment
Bill Text Versions
2026-01-14 Introduced 2026-02-04 Comm Sub 2026-03-04 Enrolled Legislative data powered by LegiScan (CC BY 4.0)
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