Virginia has an extra month to comply with a federal court order that re-enfranchises residents with certain felony convictions — something a judge says the state has not done (in violation of federal law) for over a century.
In June 2023, Tati King and Toni Johnson sued state election board members and other officials over Virginia’s constitutional rule that says any felony conviction strips someone of their voting rights.
In his Jan. 22 order, US District Court Judge John Gibney partially struck down that rule by narrowing the list to 11 common-law felonies in 1870 such as arson, manslaughter and murder.
The ruling is expected to make thousands of Virginians once again eligible to cast a ballot and ensure people don’t lose those rights for convictions outside the list moving forward.
“When I see something wrong, especially if it’s going against me, I’m gonna speak out on it,” King told VPM News’ Whittney Evans in a recent interview.
Gibney gave Virginia officials until May 1 to make sure that many of today’s disenfranchising, felony-level crimes — including the drug-related convictions that kept King and Johnson from voting — don’t strip voting rights.
Three days before that deadline, the Office of Attorney General Jay Jones, and lawyers for King and Johnson, agreed on an extension to June 1.
In an April 28 joint filing, the parties said the extra time is needed to address “certain technical and administrative challenges” of implementing Gibney’s order in a way “that minimizes confusion among voters and election officials and ensures accurate administration consistent with federal law.”
Gibney’s court order says Virginia can’t strip someone’s voting rights away for felonies other than those under common law in 1870: (1) arson; (2) burglary; (3) escape and rescue from a prison or jail; (4) larceny; (5) manslaughter; (6) mayhem; (7) murder; (8) rape; (9) robbery; (10) sodomy; and (11) suicide.
Some of the 1870-era felonies have since been abolished, formally or functionally, from the Code of Virginia.
The Sentencing Project — a Washington, DC-based nonprofit that advocates for responses to crime that minimize imprisonment — estimated in 2024 that about 260,000 people in Virginia can’t vote because of felony convictions.
According to the April 28 paperwork, Virginia Department of Election officials are working to comply with the final order. That includes coming up with a list of 2026-relevant offenses considered disqualifying convictions under Gibney’s order.
This includes changing the Virginia Election and Registration Information System, or VERIS, to ensure it doesn’t block or cancel voter registrations of people convicted of crimes not considered common-law felonies in 1870.
Some of the 1870-era felonies have since been abolished from state law.
Election officials are also rebuilding the voter registration system’s “prohibited table” to include only people convicted of felonies that can be used to take someone’s voting rights away — and updating registration forms and voter education materials.
A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office didn’t answer questions about the filing, only telling VPM News that Jones’ office is working with the plaintiffs to ensure a policy shift moves forward properly.
Vishal Agraharkar, a senior supervising attorney for the ACLU of Virginia who worked on the case, said in a statement that “thousands of disproportionately Black Virginians – who should have never been disenfranchised in the first place – will finally be able to register and vote starting June 1.”
He added that the ACLU of Virginia would help the state undertake the “historic expansion of voting rights” and that it was past time “to finally and formally right this wrong.”
King and Johnson’s successful legal challenge argued that the state constitution was in violation of the federal Virginia Readmission Act of 1870.
That 1870 law let Virginia regain congressional representation after the Civil War, but in an effort to protect Black voters, barred the state from changing its constitution to disenfranchise citizens for crimes other than common-law felonies at the time.
In his court opinion, Gibney stated that Virginia has adopted new constitutions “at least four times” since 1870, and that each change “disenfranchised people for reasons other than common-law felonies.”
“For well over a century, the Commonwealth of Virginia has disobeyed a federal law designed to protect the right of former enslaved people to vote,” Gibney wrote in his Jan. 22 opinion.
Virginia is one of just a few states where only the governor can restore voting rights for people with felony convictions.
In November, Virginians will vote on a constitutional amendment about whether the power should be shifted out of the governor’s hands and make the voter restoration process automatic for people who finish their felony sentences.
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