THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 9, 1994 TAG: 9411090333
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
Virginians added three amendments to their state Constitution Tuesday, including a provision that would extend the deadline for people to sue people who willfully abused them as children.
Two other proposals will make voter registration easier and limit the governor's veto power.
The first amendment overturns a state Supreme Court ruling that requires child abuse lawsuits to be filed within two years after the injury. The court overturned a state law allowing abuse victims to file lawsuits until their 28th birthdays.
The voter registration amendment conforms Virginia law to a federal law passed last year allowing registration by mail and prohibiting cancellation of registrations of those who fail to vote within four years.
The third ballot proposal approved by voters specifies that bills passed by the General Assembly become law unless the governor vetoes them. The governor's failure to act has been treated as a veto on most bills.
Another change allows the governor to offer only one set of amendments to a bill for the Assembly to accept or reject instead of allowing the governor to try again if his first set of amendments is rejected.
Also, legislators will be able to consider the governor's amendments separately, reject the amendments and pass the original bill into law during the regular session rather than waiting until a veto override session in the spring.
There was no organized opposition to any of the amendments.
The state's high court reversed a 1991 state law allowing people who as children were the victims of intentional abuse to file lawsuits until age 28. The law carved out an exception to an existing law requiring personal injury lawsuits to be filed within two years of the injury.
The legislature passed the bill after hearing testimony from women who did not realize they had been abused as children until they underwent therapy as adults.
But the Supreme Court said it was unconstitutional to apply the law to abuse that occurred before 1991.
Voter registrars supported the registration referendum but were unable to campaign for it openly because state elections policy discourages them from taking an advocacy role.
The federal ``motor voter'' law approved last year applies only to federal elections beginning in 1996, so states could continue to have their own rules for state and local elections. Advocates of the amendment said the two-tier system would be confusing for voters. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
AMENDMENTS
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
KEYWORDS: ELECTION VIRGINIA CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDEMENTS RESULTS by CNB