Virginia is one of three remaining Confederate states whose constitution still permanently takes away the right to vote for all returning citizens with past felony convictions. This affects Virginians in every part of the state and across the political spectrum: over 4% of eligible Virginian voters – 2.5x the national average – remain permanently stripped of their fundamental civil rights.
This must change. Our coalition is comprised of multiple state-based and national organizations, representing voting rights, criminal legal reform, directly-impacted Virginians, and others. Our goal is to amend Virginia’s constitution to include automatic, clear, and fair restoration of voting rights for those who have served their time for felony convictions.
- ABOUT
Our democracy works best when it includes all of us
Virginians who have successfully served their time should be able to exercise their right to vote and be fully-engaged citizens in their communities.
But right now, Virginia is an outlier. We are the only state in the nation that permanently and automatically bans anyone with a felony conviction from voting, and then requires them to individually petition the governor to get their voting rights restored. That means that there is no standard, transparent criteria to regain voting rights at all.
A voting rights amendment will put the right to vote out of reach of individual governors, parties, or partisan actors by removing the governor’s right to handpick his voters through voting rights restoration. The amendment will guarantee that no matter who is in office, voters have access to the ballot box, making the right to vote exactly what it should be: nonpartisan.
Virginians believe in second chances.
Restoring the right to vote gives returning citizens a second chance at becoming invested members of their communities. Returning citizens in Virginia should not be defined by past mistakes. They are business owners, community leaders, preachers, parents, and neighbors that deserve to have a say in the future of Virginia communities.
This constitutional amendment would align Virginia with the rest of the country and eliminate the legacy of the Confederacy reflected in Virginia’s current process. Nationally, 1 in 19 eligible Black voters is disenfranchised – in Virginia, 1 in 10 Black adults are disenfranchised. That’s more than twice as high a rate as the rest of the country, and one of the highest rates in the whole nation.
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