As members of the General Assembly return to the Capitol for the reconvene session this week, the restoration of voting rights is expected to be a major topic of conversation.
During the days of Jim Crow, delegates to the 1902 constitutional convention added a provision calling for voting rights to be stripped of anyone convicted of a felony. The only way they could be restored was an act of the governor. Recent governors have created a system of automatically restoring voting rights. But now, Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin has discontinued automatic restoration of voting rights. Democratic House Leader Don Scott says that's a return to the bad, old days of Jim Crow.
"It is incredibly disappointing that when people have paid their debt to society they have to come back home and beg their governor, 'Please sir, please sir, can I have my rights back,'" Scott says.
Former Republican Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling now teaches at George Mason University's Schar School, and he says making the process of restoring voting rights automatic is a mistake.
"Frankly as lieutenant governor, I often asked myself if I ever had the responsibility as governor, what type of process would I put in place, and I think I would have put into place a more deliberate process," Bolling explains. "Probably a process similar to one that the Governor Youngkin is considering, not one that simply said just because a sentence has been completed, restoration should be automatic."
Advocates for voting rights say there's only one way to fix the problem — a constitutional amendment taking the power to restore voting rights out of the hands of the governor.
Democratic Senator Lionell Spruill of Chesapeake says he’ll be meet with the governor Wednesday morning to talk about the process.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
