Restoring Voting Rights to Former Felony Offenders

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe took the historic step of signing an “executive action” Friday that lifts a lifetime voting ban for people who have been convicted of felony offenses in the past. The blanket voting-rights restoration will allow more than 200,000 people in the state to become eligible to vote for this year’s elections. For many years, the issue of whether the governor could legally make such a sweeping move was not a settled legal matter, given that the felony voting ban is codified in the state’s constitution. However, McAuliffe said that he consulted with his Attorney General, Mark Herring, and University of Virginia constitutional law expert A. E. Dick Howard, who assured the governor that he had such legal authority.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch obtained a draft of the research paper that McAuliffe used to make this decision, which found that, “Under the Constitution of Virginia, the governor has the authority to 'remove political disabilities consequent upon conviction' for felonies.”