NORFOLK, Va. — A recently published annual report on Virginia's voter rolls is raising new questions about how people's rights are being restored following felony convictions.
In Virginia, people lose their civil rights, including the right to vote, following a felony conviction.
Only the governor can restore the person's rights.
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The Virginia Dept. of Elections Annual List Maintenance Report stated that more than 10,000 people who previously had their rights restored were removed again from voter rolls for new felony convictions.
The ACLU of Virginia said they've been getting reports of people being removed for only technical probation violations, not new felony convictions.
"A lot of local organizations are concerned that people who had their rights restored by the governor are being improperly re-disenfranchised," said Shawn Weneta, a policy strategist with ACLU of Virginia.
VPM, a public news media outlet, reported a man from Arlington showed up to vote over the summer during the primaries and was unable to because his name had been removed from the voter roll.
He took the issue to court saying he only faced probation violations, not a new felony conviction.
A judge ruled in his favor and said he should not have been removed.
"Removing people from the voter rolls without having committed a new felony is not only unprecedented, it's also unconstitutional," said Weneta.
Officials with the Dept. of Elections said they rely on lists of people who've been convicted of felonies from state police and a spokesperson said they don't have the authority to make a judgment on the data.
A spokesperson for the governor said, "Governor Youngkin believes in second chances, but his top priority is protecting the people of the Commonwealth from violent criminals."
The spokesperson put blame on former Gov. Ralph Northam saying he restored the rights of "many violent criminals and repeat sex offenders."
During his time in office, Northam restored the rights of more than 125,000 people, including a man named Christopher Richardson, whom WTKR spoke with earlier this year.
"It was very important to have my voting rights restored because I wanted to live a normal life," Richardson said.
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Between September 2022 and mid-August 2023, the Dept. of Elections report says about 2,700 people had their voting rights restored.
The issue is getting the attention of state lawmakers.
"I'm looking at putting in a bill that specifically directs the state police to not share information about probation violations," said Sen. Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax County). "If [the Dept. of Elections isn't] going to look at the information that they get and actually try to interpret it then we don't need to give them information they don't need."
