Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) told reporters Friday that her administration is “looking into” the possibility that it restored the voting rights of deceased individuals when reinstating voting rights for Virginians with prior felony convictions.
Spanberger announced in July that her office restored voting rights for 66,085 previous felons in Virginia. The commonwealth’s constitution automatically and permanently strips voting rights of all convicted felons, but it leaves the power to restore them individually after a person completes their prison sentence to the sitting governor.
Spanberger was asked about reports that when she did this, she automatically restored voting rights for previous felons who had already died. Spanberger did not deny the reports and said her office is “digging into” the case to investigate instances where that “appears to be the case.”
“We’re certainly looking into that possibility and recognizing that there has been a focus on a number of cases where that appears to be the case,” Spanberger said.
Spanberger explained that the databases that track which individuals do not have voting rights would “not necessarily” note whether an individual passed away.
“The reality of the challenge exists in all of the different databases where there might be individuals who have been listed as someone who had their rights taken because of their felony conviction, and those same databases would not necessarily have the reporting that that person had passed away,” Spanberger said.
She emphasized that even if a dead person’s voting rights were restored through her administration, it doesn’t mean they are actually registered to vote. Spanberger also added that it’s a felony to cast a ballot on behalf of someone else, living or dead.
Spanberger’s decision to automatically restore, en masse, convicted felons’ voting rights marked a sharp contrast to former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s approach. Youngkin restored the voting rights of fewer than 10,000 felons during his four years as governor and required the felons to individually apply for the restoration of their voting rights once released from prison.
VIRGINIA PAROLE BOARD RELEASES MURDERERS, RAPISTS, AND CHILD PREDATORS UNDER SPANBERGER
The news of the dead former felons possibly having their voting rights restored comes less than one month ahead of a November referendum on the matter, in which Virginians will be asked whether they support a constitutional amendment to automatically restore voting rights to felons in the state when they are released from prison.
In a report on the topic, Fox News pointed to a Facebook post from a Virginian named Howard Lambert, who posted that Spanberger sent a letter to his daughter restoring her right to vote in the midterm elections, despite the fact that his daughter, who was a convicted felon, died two years ago.
Continue reading...
[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
