Ending the Lifetime Voting Ban in Virginia

In March 2021 former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam (D) took exec­ut­ive action to automatically restore the right to vote to all Virgini­ans who are not currently incar­cer­ated. Current Governor Glenn Youngkin (R), who took office in January 2022, terminated that practice by state lawmakers in a that he was rescinding his predecessors’ policy of automatically restoring the voting rights of people with felony convictions.

Individuals convicted of a felony in Virginia who did not have their rights restored under the previous practice must now apply to the governor to have their rights restored on an individual basis. This change in policy makes Virginia the only state in the nation that permanently disenfranchises all people with felony convictions, unless the government approves individual rights restoration; basically, unless Youngkin and Youngkin only deems them to be worthy on an individual basis. 

“I’ve never voted in my life. I was looking forward to voting,” said Sincere Allah, who was released from prison the week Youngkin was inaugurated in 2022 and who has since waited to learn if his rights will be restored. “I can pay taxes, I can be held to the same standard as everyone else when it comes to laws and rules and regulations, but I have no say-so or representation.”

Democrats in the Virginia state legislature are advancing a constitutional amendment that would remove the governor’s control over voting rights restoration, and instead guarantee that people get their rights when they exit incarceration. The reform would end the governor’s discretion on the matter.

“Asking people to get on their hands and knees and beg the governor for their constitutional rights is offensive,” said Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D34).

However, that progress could come to a halt. Virginia holds it's state election in off-years and the entirely of the Virginia State House is on this ballot this November. The proposed constitutional amendment measure is universally supported by Democratic lawmakers and almost universally opposed by Republicans. It's highly likely a GOP-led Virginia state legislature would look to kill it next year if they win back the state House in the fall.

Virginia’s system of felony disenfranchisement is a Jim Crow relic, enshrined during a 1902 state constitutional convention with specifically racist intent. One of the lead authors at that convention said at the time that a system which ties voting rights to criminal records would “eliminate the darkie as a political factor” in Virginia, and guarantee “the complete supremacy of the white race in the affairs of government.”

This century-old policy is still hard at work today: 10 percent of Black Virginians were barred from voting in 2024, well above the national average. Black people remain massively overrepresented in Virginia’s prison population, and are, therefore, massively overrepresented in the pool of people exiting prison without voting rights.

You can read more about the efforts of the Virginia state legislature to reform the voting restoration process in "Virginia Legislators to Weigh Automatic Voter Restoration" at Virginia Public Media.