Youngkin's restoration of voting rights drops again

Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s switch from automatic restoration of voting rights for Virginians convicted of a felony to case-by-case decisions saw even fewer get that right last year, even after 2023’s sharp drop.

That decline in voting rights restoration came in an election year when President Donald Trump and many of his supporters intensified complaints that millions of people who vote had no right to cast a ballot.

The governor’s annual report on rights restoration and pardons, required by the state Constitution, shows he restored civil rights to 1,641 people, a Richmond Times-Dispatch analysis found.

That’s down from the 2023 total of just under 2,580, which in turn was down from just under 4,000 in 2022, when Youngkin reversed policies the three previous governors launched to automatically restore voting rights to felons who had completed their terms.

Virginia is the only state that says restoration of voting rights to any person with a felony conviction is subject to the discretion of the governor. A proposed state constitutional amendment that would automatically restore rights to felons who have served their time cleared its first hurdle this year in the legislature. Proposed ratification requires a multi-year process.

Youngkin's view

Youngkin told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that the decline reflects a sharp drop in the number of applications for rights restoration he received last year, which he said off the top of his head was on the order of a 25% decline.

He said there have been no changes in the way he looks at those applications.

“I still ask the same questions and require the same information," he said. "I do want to know the nature of the crime.

"And I do want to know the repeated nature of the crime for folks, whether there was a firearm involved or not, and whether it was against the child or not, and whether the person has completed their probation,” he said.

He checks to see if there’s been a pattern of repeated felonies, especially if the last one occurred recently. 

Youngkin also wants to know if applicants have paid any restitution a judge has ordered. Since judges set probation terms and restitution requirements, he said, "my job is not to second guess another branch of government."

Most nonviolent felons’ applications are granted fairly easily, he said.

“A governor has to give an individual review of every person before granting any restoration of rights, and that was decided at the [Virginia] Supreme Court level in response to the idea that there would be blanket restoration of rights,” Youngkin said.

In July 2016, the state Supreme Court struck down then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s executive order restoring voting rights to 206,000 felons who had served their time. A 4-3 majority found that McAuliffe had overstepped his authority by issuing the blanket order. Governors continue to consider cases on an individual basis.

“I take that responsibility incredibly seriously, and therefore every single person who applies to have their rights restored gets an individual review, Youngkin said.

“That is a really important process, because the rights that I restore are the right of someone to vote, the right of someone to run for office, the right of somebody to be a notary and the right to serve on a jury, but one of the rights I don't restore is the right to legally own a firearm,” he said.

The firearms question

But, he added, “What has happened over time is that judges, and I've heard judges say this to me … 'governor, if you've restored their rights, then I am assuming you've done your work, and therefore I'm inclined to restore their gun rights.' "

The direct connection between his decision on rights and what judges decide about allowing people convicted of a felony to have firearms, creates "a real burden to make sure that I am being incredibly thoughtful about what I'm doing,” he said.

Youngkin said his process and the criteria he uses were dictated by the Supreme Court decision on McAuliffe's initial order saying all former inmates would have their rights restored. In response, McAul­iffe issued individual restor­a­tion orders on a rolling basis to Virgini­ans with completed sentences.

Thirty-nine states restore voting rights when people leave prison or complete sentences. Two allow inmates to vote.

Eight others restore rights for some, but not all people convicted of felonies, requiring a governor or judge to restore rights for people convicted of murder, rape or, in some cases, voting fraud or bribery, a Richmond Times-Dispatch review of state laws found.

Locke's response

“Not at all surprised at this low number,” said state Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, who has pushed for years for automatic voting rights restoration, including sponsoring this year’s Constitutional amendment resolution.

“The governor has established unknown criteria for restoring rights, she said.

Those criteria appear to include the nature of the crime “and all manner of other roadblocks simply to keep individuals who are no longer incarcerated off the voter rolls,” Locke said.

Youngkin’s case-by-case approach prompted the General Assembly on largely but not completely party-line votes to launch the multi-year process needed to amend the state Constitution to allow automatic restoration of rights.

Four Republicans in the House of Delegates, Mike Cherry of Colonial Heights, A.C. Cordoza of Hampton, Carrie Coyner of Chester and Kim Taylor of Dinwiddie joined Democrats in a resolution proposing an amendment saying people would have voting rights automatically restored after completing their prison term.

If the General Assembly passes the same resolution next year, the proposed amendment would to to the state's voters in a November 2026 referendum.

“No governor should get to pick and choose their voters, including this one,” said Shawn Wenata, of The Humanization Project, a nonprofit that argues for more humane, compassionate treatment of all people behind bars, and for when they leave prison.

“This is yet further evidence that Virginia must continue the process of amending its Constitution,” he said.

Roughly two thirds of Virginia voters surveyed in a Christopher Newport University Wason Center poll earlier this year said they supported the idea of allowing people convicted of a felony to have voting rights automatically restored once they completed their prison sentence.

Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican who held the office from 2010-14, began an effort to automatically restore rights in 2013 rather than follow the case-by-case approach to which Youngkin has returned.

McDonnell’s move restored rights to 8,000 nonviolent felons.

McAuliffe, a Democrat who held the office from 2014 to 2018 — and lost to Youngkin in 2021 — restored rights to more than 173,000 individuals through the process of granting individual orders on a rolling basis.

Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat who held the office from 2018 to 2022, expanded the restoration process further to include people on probation or parole.