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It's not so simple for people with felony convictions to regain their voting rights in Virginia. It's one of a few states where only the governor can restore those rights. But Virginia's rules may soon be changing. Dean Mirshahi of VPM News explains.
DEAN MIRSHAHI, BYLINE: Tati King says he wants to set an example for his grandchildren, to show them that it's important to make sure that their voices are heard. It's why King's suing Virginia election officials in federal court to get his voting rights restored.
TATI KING: I want them to see that their grandfather was on the right side of things for once in his life.
MIRSHAHI: King served 11 months in prison for a felony drug possession charge. His application to get his voting rights restored was denied before he filed his lawsuit.
KING: Virginia is one of the only states that - where you still have to go through hurdles and hoops in order for somebody to tell you, OK, now we see you. I think the laws are draconian. I think they're archaic, and it should be changed.
MIRSHAHI: His lawsuit argues the state's disenfranchisement policy violates the Virginia Readmission Act of 1870, which allowed Virginia to regain congressional representation after the Civil War. King's lawsuit says his drug conviction isn't one of the felonies laid out in the 1870 law that automatically takes someone's voting rights away. Vishal Agraharkar is a senior supervising attorney for the ACLU of Virginia, one of the groups that's helping to bring King's case forward.
VISHAL AGRAHARKAR: Virginia has been illegally disenfranchising people, and disproportionately Black people who were targeted with this disenfranchisement after the Civil War, for more than 100 years. And we're hoping that we can put that legacy of Jim Crow behind us.
MIRSHAHI: King's legal challenge is the first thing that could soon alter Virginia's voter restoration system. Virginia's incoming governor, Democrat Abigail Spanberger, is the next. Spanberger vowed to ensure all eligible Virginians who have served their prison sentences have their voting rights restored. Rebecca Green is a law professor at William & Mary. She says three governors streamlined the process, but current Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin rolled back those efforts. Younkin's case-by-case review system has led to far fewer people getting their voting rights back. It's also led to transparency questions.
REBECCA GREEN: In the current administration, it's been tough because we, in the past, had tried to help people understand the process and figure out what their status was and what they could do to get their right to vote back. But it's been, you know, a very low-information environment.
MIRSHAHI: Younkin's office says it's appropriate to consider each application individually. They say decisions are made after a review of all the information, including the nature of someone's felony conviction, whether a gun was used and if court fees are paid. But the system could soon be taken out of the governor's hands altogether. A proposal would change the state constitution to automatically restore people's voting rights once they've served their sentences. The Democratic-led general assembly is likely to send the proposal to voters next year. Agraharkar, the ACLU attorney, says he hopes King's legal challenge and the constitutional amendment will usher in a new age of voter access.
AGRAHARKAR: Both of these efforts can work together to really make a big dent - hopefully this coming year, make, really, an enormous dent in felony disenfranchisement in Virginia. Hopefully this becomes a relic of the past.
MIRSHAHI: Ultimately, it could be up to Virginia's voters to decide on the voting rights of those with felony convictions.
For NPR News, I'm Dean Mirshahi in Richmond.
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