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Voters approve eminent domain, General Assembly amendments

Posted at 11:30 AM, Nov 07, 2012
and last updated 2012-11-07 11:45:59-05

Virginia had two Constitutional Amendment questions on the ballot.  Both passed easily. 

The first has to do with the concept of eminent domain.  It asked, should any future Constitutional changes to this law be approved by voters first?  The 'yes' vote means voters want a chance to vote to approve future changes.  There is already a law in place to protect people from having their property taken from them.  The property owner usually has to come to some sort of financial agreement with the person or group that's interested in the property.  But if the two cannot come to an agreement, the interested person must prove in court that the property will serve for *public use* - before it is handed over.

The second has to do with the timing of the veto session in the General Assembly.  After the end of every legislative session - the General Assembly is required to meet for a veto session.  As of now - the veto meeting starts about six weeks after the end of each session.  But the amendment allows for more time before the veto session is required to begin – changing it to seven weeks.