Senate to consider bill to reform print disclosures

A bill that would reform disclosure requirements for printed campaign advertisements passed the House of Delegates on Feb. 6 and is now in the Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections.

The bill, HB 1238, would require print media advertisements to have a disclosure in a font size proportionate to the ad. The disclosure on a print media ad is the statement of who paid for or authorized the ad. The current requirement for disclosure sizes is a minimum font size of seven.

Bill patron Del. Tony Wilt, R-Rockingham County, said he was motivated to propose the bill because of a Board of Supervisors election in his district in which both candidates had disclosures on their yard signs but were penalized by the state Board of Elections because the disclosures were difficult to see.

The board should produce a regulation so that everybody is on the same page, Wilt said, because the candidates’ disclosures had met the current regulation.

“I’m just directing the Board of Elections, at their discretion, to come up with something that would be applicable, if someone’s printing a palm card, or if they’re making a yard sign, or if they’re making a great big 4 by 4 or 4 by 8 or…a great big sign, that the disclaimer would be in somewhat proportion to the size of the sign,” Wilt, whose district also includes Harrisonburg city, said in a phone interview.

The original bill would have tasked the State Board of Elections with creating standards for the new requirement and promoting them by July 1, 2021, with enforcement delayed until Jan. 1, 2024.

On Jan. 16, the Campaign Finance subcommittee recommended discussing the bill in the Privileges and Elections committee. The Privileges and Elections committee tabled the bill on Jan. 17, and on Jan. 24, the committee voted to remove the bill from the table and reconsider it.

Del. Mark Cole, R-Spotsylvania, was one of three on the Privileges and Elections committee who voted not to examine the bill again.

“There are problems with the legislation,” Cole wrote in an email. “The Department of Elections does not think they will be able to enforce it if it becomes law and there needs to be a ‘grandfather’ clause to allow the use of signs that have already been purchased that do not meet the new requirements. Without a grandfather clause, thousands of signs will have to be discarded, filling up our landfills across the Commonwealth.”

Because Wilt was not present to speak about his bill, the Privileges and Elections committee voted to pass by it for the day on Jan. 24. The Privileges and Elections committee heard from Wilt and voted to recommend the bill with a line item amendment on Jan. 31.

The line item amendment exempts signs used or purchased before July 1, 2024 from any new regulations resulting from the bill, Wilt said in a phone interview.

“It kind of took the teeth out of the bill,” Wilt said.

Legislators on the committee said they have had signs they’ve been using for years, Wilt said, although he thought that stickers with larger disclosures could have solved that problem.