                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

FORM OF BALLOT (§ 24.2-613)

A. The ballots shall comply with the requirements of this title and the
standards prescribed by the State Board. The names of all candidates to appear
on the ballots shall be in the same font, size, and style.

B. For elections for federal, statewide, and General Assembly offices only, each
candidate who has been nominated by a political party or in a primary election
shall be identified by the name of his political party. Independent candidates
shall be identified by the term &#8220;Independent.&#8221; For the purpose of
this section, any Independent candidate may, by producing sufficient and
appropriate evidence of nomination by a &#8220;recognized political party&#8221;
to the State Board, have the term &#8220;Independent&#8221; on the ballot
converted to that of a &#8220;recognized political party&#8221; on the ballot
and be treated on the ballot in a manner consistent with the candidates
nominated by political parties. For the purpose of this section, a
&#8220;recognized political party&#8221; is defined as an organization that, for
at least six months preceding the filing of its nominee for the office, has had
in continual existence a state central committee composed of registered voters
residing in each congressional district of the Commonwealth, a party plan and
bylaws, and a duly elected state chairman and secretary. A letter from the state
chairman of a recognized political party certifying that a candidate is the
nominee of that party and also signed by such candidate accepting that
nomination shall constitute sufficient and appropriate evidence of nomination by
a recognized political party. The name of the political party, the name of the
&#8220;recognized political party,&#8221; or term &#8220;Independent&#8221; may
be shown by an initial or abbreviation to meet ballot requirements.

C. Except as provided for primary elections, the State Board shall determine by
lot the order of the political parties, and the names of all candidates for a
particular office shall appear together in the order determined for their
parties. In an election district in which more than one person is nominated by
one political party for the same office, the candidates&#8217; names shall
appear alphabetically in their party groups under the name of the office, with
sufficient space between party groups to indicate them as such. For the purpose
of this section, except as provided for presidential elections in &#xA7;
24.2-614, &#8220;recognized political parties&#8221; shall be treated as a
class; the order of the recognized political parties within the class shall be
determined by lot by the State Board; and the class shall follow the political
parties as defined by &#xA7; 24.2-101 and precede the independent class.
Independent candidates shall be treated as a class under
&#8220;Independent&#8221;, and their names shall be placed on the ballot after
the political parties and recognized political parties. Where there is more than
one independent candidate for an office, their names shall appear on the ballot
in an order determined by the priority of time of filing for the office. In the
event two or more candidates file simultaneously, the order of filing shall then
be determined by lot by the electoral board as in the case of a tie vote for the
office.
			For the purposes of this subsection, &#8220;time of filing for the
office&#8221; means the time at which an independent candidate has filed his
petition signature pages with a number of signatures at least equal to the
number required for the office pursuant to &#xA7; 24.2-506. In the case of an
office for which no petition is required, &#8220;time of filing for the
office&#8221; means the time at which the candidate has filed his completed
statement of qualification pursuant to &#xA7; 24.2-501.
			No individual&#8217;s name shall appear on the ballot more than once for the
same office.

D. On any ballot, all offices to be elected shall appear before any questions
presented to the voters.

E. In preparing the printed ballots for general, special, and primary elections,
the State Board and general registrars shall cause to be printed in not less
than 10-point type, immediately below the title of any office, a statement of
the number of candidates for whom votes may be cast for that office. For any
office to which only one candidate can be elected, the following language shall
be used: &#8220;Vote for only one.&#8221; For any office to which more than one
candidate can be elected, the following language shall be used: &#8220;Vote for
not more than ____.&#8221;

F. Any locality that uses machine-readable ballots at one or more precincts,
including any central absentee precinct, may, with the approval of the State
Board, use a printed reproduction of the machine-readable ballot in lieu of the
official machine-readable ballot. Such reproductions shall be printed and
otherwise handled in accordance with all laws and procedures that apply to
official paper ballots.

HISTORY: Code 1950, §§ 24-215, 24-217; 1970, c. 462, §§ 24.1-111, 24.1-113;
1971, Ex. Sess., c. 119; 1972, c. 620; 1973, c. 30; 1974, c. 428; 1980, c. 639;
1981, c. 425; 1993, c. 641; 2000, cc. 282, 514, 866; 2002, c. 738; 2008, c. 544;
2010, c. 204; 2014, cc. 540, 568, 576; 2016, c. 493; 2017, cc. 352, 364; 2018,
cc. 464, 537; 2019, cc. 99, 283, 289.