---
type: "Bill"
title: "General registrar; qualifications, residency."
description: "General registrar; qualifications, residency. Allows a county or city with a population of 50,000 or less to appoint a general registrar that is not a qualified voter of the county or city. Under current law, only counties or cities with a population of 25,000 or less may do so."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2021"
identifier: "SB 1281"
citation: "Virginia SB 1281 (2021)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Joseph D. Morrissey"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 29
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2021-01-11"
last_action: "2021-03-31"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/11880e92-4b90-4997-8ce1-23a97ede08a8"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+sum+SB1281"
source_hash: "d347099b1c8b52919564822619f0d868c466ab1763056e197d6c3f73c28722d3"
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 SB 1281 (2021) — General registrar; qualifications, residency.

General registrar; qualifications, residency. Allows a county or city with a population of 50,000 or less to appoint a general registrar that is not a qualified voter of the county or city. Under current law, only counties or cities with a population of 25,000 or less may do so.

## Version chain

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

1. **CHAP0482** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+CHAP0482)
2. **Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/21 21101704D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1281)
3. **Printed as engrossed 21101704D-E** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1281E)
4. **SB1281ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1281ER)

## Votes

- Reported from Privileges and Elections (13-Y 9-N) — **13–9** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Passage (54-Y 46-N) — **53–46** (pass) · lower
- Continued to Special Session 1 in Privileges and Elections — **0–0** (fail) · lower
- Read third time and passed Senate (31-Y 8-N) — **31–8** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Privileges and Elections with amendments (13-Y 0-N 2-A) — **13–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Joseph D. Morrissey — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-01-11** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/21 21101704D `introduction`
- **2021-01-11** Referred to Committee on Privileges and Elections `referral-committee`
- **2021-01-18** Impact statement from DPB (SB1281)
- **2021-01-19** Senate committee, floor amendments and substitutes offered
- **2021-01-19** Reported from Privileges and Elections with amendments (13-Y 0-N 2-A) `committee-passage`
- **2021-01-21** Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N)
- **2021-01-22** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2021-01-22** Reading of amendments waived
- **2021-01-22** Committee amendments agreed to
- **2021-01-22** Engrossed by Senate as amended SB1281E
- **2021-01-22** Printed as engrossed 21101704D-E
- **2021-01-25** Read third time and passed Senate (31-Y 8-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2021-01-25** Impact statement from DPB (SB1281E)
- **2021-02-02** Placed on Calendar
- **2021-02-02** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2021-02-02** Referred to Committee on Privileges and Elections `referral-committee`
- **2021-02-08** Continued to Special Session 1 in Privileges and Elections
- **2021-02-10** Reported from Privileges and Elections (13-Y 9-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-02-12** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2021-02-15** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2021-02-15** Passed House (54-Y 46-N) `passage`
- **2021-02-15** VOTE: Passage (54-Y 46-N)
- **2021-02-17** Enrolled
- **2021-02-17** Signed by President
- **2021-02-18** Impact statement from DPB (SB1281ER)
- **2021-02-18** Signed by Speaker
- **2021-02-22** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on February 22, 2021
- **2021-02-22** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., March 31, 2021
- **2021-03-31** Approved by Governor-Chapter 482 (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/11880e92-4b90-4997-8ce1-23a97ede08a8`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).