---
type: "Bill"
title: "Polling places; prohibited activities, unlawful possession of a firearm, penalty."
description: "Polling places; prohibited activities; unlawfulpossession of a firearm; penalty. Prohibits any person from knowingly possessing a firearm within 40 feet of any building, orpart thereof, used as a polling place, including one hour before andone hour after its use as a polling place, except for (i) a qualifiedlaw-enforcement officer or retired law-enforcement officer, (ii)any person occupying his own private property that falls within40 feet of the polling place, or (iii) a licensed armed securityofficer whose employment or performance of his duties occurs within40 feet of the polling place. The bill further provides that no personshall knowingly possess a firearm within 40 feet of a meeting placefor the local electoral board while the electoral board meets to ascertainthe results of an election or any place used as the setting for arecount. A violation of the provisions of the bill is a Class 1 misdemeanor."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2021"
identifier: "HB 2081"
citation: "Virginia HB 2081 (2021)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Mark H. Levine"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 24
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2021-01-12"
last_action: "2021-03-31"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/52d9ef2b-9db4-4bab-a9d7-44665e7c6852"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+sum+HB2081"
source_hash: "3915a52cdbd10eb0dc62f37a6db9f078cf3b3e7f9de60af822bb8cdc95935496"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia HB 2081 (2021) — Polling places; prohibited activities, unlawful possession of a firearm, penalty.

Polling places; prohibited activities; unlawfulpossession of a firearm; penalty. Prohibits any person from knowingly possessing a firearm within 40 feet of any building, orpart thereof, used as a polling place, including one hour before andone hour after its use as a polling place, except for (i) a qualifiedlaw-enforcement officer or retired law-enforcement officer, (ii)any person occupying his own private property that falls within40 feet of the polling place, or (iii) a licensed armed securityofficer whose employment or performance of his duties occurs within40 feet of the polling place. The bill further provides that no personshall knowingly possess a firearm within 40 feet of a meeting placefor the local electoral board while the electoral board meets to ascertainthe results of an election or any place used as the setting for arecount. A violation of the provisions of the bill is a Class 1 misdemeanor.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **CHAP0459** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+CHAP0459)
2. **HB2081ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+HB2081ER)
3. **Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/21 21102618D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+HB2081)

## Votes

- Continued to 2021 Sp. Sess. 1 in Judiciary (14-Y 0-N) — **14–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Privileges and Elections (13-Y 9-N) — **13–9** (pass) · lower
- Passed Senate (21-Y 18-N) — **21–18** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Passage (53-Y 47-N) — **52–47** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed (38-Y 0-N) — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Judiciary (8-Y 6-N) — **8–6** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Mark H. Levine — primary (person)
- Betsy B. Carr — cosponsor (person)
- Eileen Filler-Corn — cosponsor (person)
- Kathleen Murphy — cosponsor (person)
- Kaye Kory — cosponsor (person)
- Marcia S. "Cia" Price — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2021-01-12** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/21 21102618D `introduction`
- **2021-01-12** Referred to Committee on Privileges and Elections `referral-committee`
- **2021-01-15** Impact statement from DPB (HB2081)
- **2021-01-20** Reported from Privileges and Elections (13-Y 9-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-01-21** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2021-01-22** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2021-01-25** Read third time and passed House (53-Y 47-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2021-01-25** VOTE: Passage (53-Y 47-N)
- **2021-01-26** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2021-01-26** Referred to Committee on the Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2021-02-05** Continued to 2021 Sp. Sess. 1 in Judiciary (14-Y 0-N)
- **2021-02-15** Reported from Judiciary (8-Y 6-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-02-16** Constitutional reading dispensed (38-Y 0-N)
- **2021-02-17** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2021-02-17** Passed by for the day
- **2021-02-18** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2021-02-18** Passed Senate (21-Y 18-N) `passage`
- **2021-02-22** Enrolled
- **2021-02-22** Signed by President
- **2021-02-23** Impact statement from DPB (HB2081ER)
- **2021-02-24** Signed by Speaker
- **2021-02-25** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on February 25, 2021
- **2021-02-25** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., March 31, 2021
- **2021-03-31** Approved by Governor-Chapter 459 (effective 7/1/21) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/52d9ef2b-9db4-4bab-a9d7-44665e7c6852`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).