More than 200,000 Virginians who regained their voting rights after a court ruled earlier this year they never should have lost them based on a Reconstruction-era law.
In addition to that case, Gov. Abigail Spanberger
restored about 60,000 others’ rights over the summer, reported The Virginia Mercury.
But the third in a slate of constitutional amendments
on Election Day ballots will determine if voting restoration will become
automatic after incarceration, or remain a petition-based system.
Proposed Constitutional Amendment Question 3
Question: Should the Constitution of Virginia be
amended (i) to provide for the fundamental right to vote in the Commonwealth,
(ii) to revise the qualifications of voters so that a person convicted of a
felony is not entitled to vote during his period of incarceration but is
automatically invested with the right to vote upon release from incarceration,
and (iii) to update the existing prohibition on voting by persons found to be
mentally incompetent to instead apply to persons who have been found to lack the
capacity to understand the act of voting?
Virginia’s constitution permanently disenfranchises
people with felonies unless a governor pardons them or they successfully
petition a governor to restore their voting rights. That process is subjective
and not always transparent.
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