Restoration of Rights is a Valuable Part of Voter Access for Impacted Voters that Should be Embraced by Elected Officials

At Spread The Vote, our Vote by Mail in Jail program focuses on preparing eligible impacted voters for elections regardless of their incarceration status all year-round. As a part of this work we’re proud to have assisted jailed voters with applying to have their voting rights restored in those states where the governor is required to approve rights restoration prior to impacted voters having access to the vote. This barrier is burdensome for voter hopefuls, and even more so for those who’re behind bars. We’ve had the privilege of eliminating this obstruction for several voters, especially in the state of Virginia where our partners reported that requests for assistance with rights restoration forms were coming more frequently than those for voter registrations. 

In Virginia in particular, voter eligibility is stripped from all Virginians who are convicted of a felony. The right to vote can only be restored through individual clemency from the governor. Over the past year during the previous 2022 elections, 40% of vote by mail in jail participants in Virginia sought support with rights restoration applications during the primary election and 38% during the general election. Assisting voters with rights restoration applications became a valuable part of our work in Virginia. However January 2023 we saw an unfortunate change in the rights restoration process. In 20222 under the jurisdiction of Governor Ralph Northam upheld the traditional rights restoration process as an automatic restoration with the receipt of the application for all those who’ve completed the conditions of their probation or parole. With the election of Glenn Youngkin, his recent change to the previous rights restoration process requires an individual to apply for clemency in order to have their voting rights restored, a more onerous process that may result in the delay of voting rights restoration applications. Potentially eligible voters must now submit an application for clemency and follow up on their application by checking their status online via the Secretary of the Commonwealth portal, after which they would request a certificate of clemency in order to register to vote. 

This change in the process is unfortunate for impacted voters, as the steps required for restoration may become discouraging. For those who were not serving a current conviction that applied for rights restoration prior to January 2023, like those who participated in vbmij for the 2022 elections, their restoration of voting rights are not negatively impacted by this change. However, for those who are impacted, but aren’t currently serving a felony conviction they are eligible to apply to the governor's office to restore their right to vote. For those facility partners that we worked with in Virgina throughout 2022, we were able to assure our staff contact within the facility about this recent policy change earlier this year. If you or an impacted voter in Virginia are unsure about voting status, you can use this tool to check on your eligibility and confirm whether the completion of a voter registration form or a voting rights application would be the best next step towards participating in the next election.  

Simply put, while restoration of voting rights applications will no longer be automatically accepted by the governor's office as they were in the past. Fortunately, this doesn't have any impact on previously submitted applications, like for those voters we supported last year and at this stage the application form itself hasn't changed, so applications will still be received as they were, but receiving a response back may take longer than expected in the future. If your in Virginia and would like to be a part of Vote by Mail in Jail to stay up to date with this process as it may change in the future, we welcome you to sign up here if you work within a facility or here if you work with an organization in the community. We’re looking forward to working with you to assist more jailed voters.

In Virginia and interested in starting your rights restoration process? Visit Virginia’s Secretary of the Commonwealth website at https://www.restore.virginia.gov/