This paper presents a modified variational modeling method and develops an electro-mechanical coupling based vibration control method for moving composite plate structures. Unlike the stationary structures, movement will introduce new challenges for both vibration analysis and control of the laminated plate. Based on the modified variational method, electromechanically coupled dynamic models for the moving plate with piezoelectric patches and control circuits are developed. To release limitations to the admissible functions, modified variational principles are derived for the interface and boundary constraints in both directions of the moving plate. On the basis of first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT), the energy functional expressions of the axially moving laminated plates are formulated and the governing equations are obtained. To suppress the vibration, a piezoelectric shunt damping circuit (PSDC) with negative capacitance is proposed and the control circuit parameters are optimized using the differential evolution (DE) algorithm. Through numerous numerical examples, the high accuracy, good efficiency, and flexibility in constructing admissible functions of the proposed modeling method are demonstrated. The developed PSDC possesses much better vibration suppression properties for the moving laminated plates than the series R-L PSDC. Effects of the moving speed and negative capacitance on the optimal circuit parameters are also examined. The appropriate values of the negative capacitance are shown to be near the capacitance of the patches.