The fight to restore voting rights to Virginia’s felons has been a tug of war between Virginia’s Democratic Governor and state Republicans. Today, the governor gave his next big pull, announcing almost 13,000 individual restorations and laying out a path for more.
It’s been one month since Virginia’s Supreme Court ruled Terry McAuliffe's mass rights restoration unconstitutional. McAuliffe had restored 200,000 felons the right to vote in April.
But McAuliffe did not appear chastised at the state capitol Monday as he defended his actions.
“I have the authority to restore civil rights without limitation. But the court dismissed the clear text of the Constitution by simply saying that the rights have never been restored in this manner here in Virginia," McAuliffe said. "In other words, we were messing around with the way things have always been done in the Old Dominion.”
The way things have always been done is a case-by-case analysis of felons’ records.
That’s what the Governor’s office says they’ll do now, checking with state agencies to make sure each person in the original pool of 200,000 has actually finished serving their time before they sign and send out an individual restoration along with a voter registration application.
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Those whose rights were restored were people who had already registered to vote since McAuliffe's initial announcement in April.
Virginia's House of Delegates Speaker, Republican Bill Howell, said in a statement that lawmakers would carefully review the new process.
"From the beginning, we have done nothing more than hold the Governor accountable to the Constitution and the rule of law," wrote Howell.
The Governor’s office didn’t have any details on how quickly they thought they’d be able to make their way through the list, but said they will be posting updates monthly.
