Voting Rights Restoration Efforts in Virginia

Disenfranchisement in Virginia

On January 22, 2026, a federal court ruled that Virginia can only disenfranchise people convicted of crimes that were considered felonies at common law in 1870. Individuals convicted of one of those felonies must apply to the governor to have their voting rights restored. Individuals convicted of any other felony are eligible to vote and do not need to apply to the governor to have their rights restored. A state-maintained website with information regarding Virginia’s rights restoration process can be accessed here. 

Virgini­a’s disen­fran­chise­ment provi­sion dates to the nine­teenth century. Until the federal court’s ruling,  Virginia was one of three states whose consti­tu­tion perman­ently disen­fran­chised all citizens with past felony convic­tions, but granted the state’s governor the author­ity to restore voting rights. Several Virginia governors exer­cised their exec­ut­ive author­ity to restore voting rights. The Bren­nan Center was among those who urged Governors Mark Warner (2005), Tim Kaine (2009), and Robert McDon­nell (2010) to do so.

Legislative Efforts and Executive Actions

• In January 2026, the General Assembly voted to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the November 3, 2026 ballot that would automatically restore voting rights upon release from prison. In April 2026, the General Assembly passed a bill that would update the state’s election code if voters approve the constitutional amendment.  
• Some time after May 2022, then-Gov. Glenn Youngkin quietly ended his predecessor’s practice of automatically restoring voting rights to all Virginians not currently incarcerated. With Youngkin’s action, Virginia again returned to permanent disenfranchisement, unless the government approves individual rights restoration.
• In February 2022, a proposed constitutional amendment that would have provided for the automatic restoration of voting rights upon release from prison died in a House subcommittee. The amendment, which passed the General Assembly in March 2021, had to be passed by the General Assembly again in 2022 in order to go before voters for approval.
• In March 2021, then-Gov. Northam took exec­ut­ive action to automatically restore the right to vote to all Virgini­ans on proba­tion or parole, mirror­ing the proposed consti­tu­tional amend­ment.
• In August 2016, Gov. McAul­iffe announced that his office would issue individual restor­a­tion orders on a rolling basis to Virgini­ans with completed sentences.  
• In April 2016, Gov. McAul­iffe issued an exec­ut­ive order restor­ing voting rights to Virgini­ans with felony convic­tions who, as of that date, had completed the terms of their incar­cer­a­tion and any period of super­vised release (proba­tion or parole). He issued similar orders in May and June. These orders were chal­lenged in court, and in July 2016, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled in Howell v. McAul­iffe that they viol­ated the state consti­tu­tion, which required the governor to make clem­ency determ­in­a­tions on a case-by-case basis.
• In June 2015, Gov. McAul­iffe removed the require­ment that citizens fully pay court costs and fees to have their voting rights restored.
• In April 2014, Gov. Terry McAul­iffe announced that he would further stream­line the restor­a­tion process. The policy change broadened the category of people who auto­mat­ic­ally received their right to vote upon the comple­tion of their sentence, and shortened the rights restor­a­tion wait­ing period for people convicted of violent felonies to apply from five years to three.
• In May 2013, rights restor­a­tion gained momentum when then-Gov. Bob McDon­nell ended Virgini­a’s policy of perman­ently disen­fran­chising all citizens with felony convic­tions. His action auto­mated rights restor­a­tion for people complet­ing sentences (includ­ing payment of any fines, fees, and resti­tu­tion) for convic­tions clas­si­fied as non-viol­ent and elim­in­ated their two-year wait­ing period, though it required that each person receive an indi­vidu­al­ized rights restor­a­tion certi­fic­ate before regis­ter­ing to vote.

 Bren­nan Center Cover­age

•  The Vote in Virginia, Andrew Cohen (April 25, 2016)
• Keep Polit­ics Out of Virginia Voting Rights Restor­a­tion, Tomas Lopez & Kwame Akosah (July 19, 2016)
• Virginia Governor Restores Voting Rights to 200,000 Citizens (April 22, 2016)
• How Much of a Differ­ence Did New Voting Restric­tions Make in Yester­day’s Close Races?, Wendy Weiser, Cross­pos­ted at Bill Moyers & Company (November 5, 2014)
• The Demo­cracy Restor­a­tion Act: Secur­ing Voting Rights for All, Nicole Austin-Hillery, Cross­pos­ted at Amer­ican Consti­tu­tion Soci­ety (April 15, 2014)
• States of Dysfunc­tion: Voting Issues from Elec­tion Day 2013, Victoria Bassetti (November 6, 2013)
• Virgini­a’s Step Forward On Voting Rights, Carson Whitelem­ons (June 11, 2013)
• A Step Forward in Virginia on Restor­ing Voting Rights, Vishal Agra­harkar, Cross­pos­ted at The Huff­ing­ton Post (January 11, 2013)
• Jim Crow makes a comeback in Virginia, Erika Wood, Origin­ally published at The Grio (April 15, 2010)
• WOOD: Restore the Vote to These Virgini­ans, Erika Wood, Rich­mond Times-Dispatch (January 13, 2010)
• It Isn’t Complic­ated: Restore the Vote to 300,000 Amer­ic­ans, Erika Wood, Origin­ally published in the Rich­mond Times-Dispatch (January 14, 2010)

 Bren­nan Center Public­a­tions

•  Restor­ing the Right to Vote, Erika Wood (2009)
  • The Bren­nan Center’s policy proposal for restor­ing voting rights for citizens with past crim­inal convic­tions.
• My First Vote (2009)
  • Testi­mo­ni­als of indi­vidu­als who regained their voting rights after being disen­fran­chised because of past crim­inal convic­tions.
• De Facto Disen­fran­chise­ment, Erika Wood & Rachel Bloom (2008)
  • A report on how complex laws, poorly informed offi­cials, and misin­form­a­tion lead to the de facto disen­fran­chise­ment of citizens with past crim­inal convic­tions who are eligible to vote.
• Racism & Felony Disen­fran­chise­ment: An Inter­twined History, Erin Kelley (2017)
  • A piece examin­ing the histor­ical roots of crim­inal disen­fran­chise­ment laws that today strip voting rights from millions of U.S. citizens.

For more inform­a­tion about the Bren­nan Center’s work on Restor­ing Voting Rights in Virginia, please contact berryp@brennan.law.nyu.edu.