The House Judiciary Committee and its subcommittees met this morning to discuss several bills; House Bills 4415, 4435, 4412, 4080, and 4137 were advanced to markup and passage.
House Judiciary
House Bill 4415 would provide clarification that state law enforcement would be able to arrest individuals who are attempting to smuggle contraband into federal facilities.
House Bill 4435 would increase the number of precincts to be audited by manual hand count and lengthen the timeframe that candidates have to demand a recount. This bill would result in an increase from three percent to ten percent of precincts to be audited.
House Bills 4477 and 4484 were laid over for another day.
House Courts
House Bill 4412 would require websites that show pornography to implement an age verification system to prevent minors from accessing the content.
House Legal Services
House Bill 4080 would require mayoral and city council elections to be partisan.
House Bill 4137 would update existing code about the West Virginia Law Institute. The institute was established to provide support services to the legislature, as well as the West Virginia University College of Law. These updates address issues with membership based on congressional districts, how vacancies are filled, and would exempt the Institute from open meeting laws.
