Overview
- Voters approved a legislatively referred constitutional amendment that makes voting a fundamental right and restores voting rights automatically when a person leaves incarceration.
- The amendment narrows disenfranchisement to the period of incarceration and updates the mental-capacity rule to apply only to people who lack the capacity to understand the act of voting.
- The change ends the long-standing practice that required a governor to grant restorations and will shift authority from the governor's office to the state constitution, with certification and agency guidance still needed to implement details.
- Advocates said the amendment will enfranchise a large number of Virginians who were barred by past rules, and estimates from criminal-justice groups put the preexisting disenfranchised population in the hundreds of thousands.
- The vote follows years of legal and political fights over restorations, including a 2016 mass-restoration order blocked by the Virginia Supreme Court and wide swings in restoration rates under different governors.