Felony disenfranchisement virtually ended for people who served their time in Virginia thanks to the implementation of a historic lawsuit

RICHMOND, Va. – In response to the Commonwealth of Virginia updating its voter registration materials to allow Virginians with convictions for all but three felonies to register to vote, virtually ending felony disenfranchisement in the Commonwealth for people who have served their time after more than 150 years of a Jim Crow scheme, the ACLU of Virginia, Protect Democracy, and WilmerHale released the following joint statement:

“After more than 150 years in which the Commonwealth has been the harshest state in the country when it comes to voting rights – automatically and permanently stripping the right to vote from everyone with a felony conviction in violation of federal law – felony disenfranchisement has now all but came to an end in Virginia. Out of the more than 1,000 felonies that exist in Virginia, the Commonwealth will now only strip voting rights from people convicted of one of three felonies, meaning that of the quarter of a million Virginians who were ineligible to vote due to a felony conviction in 2024, only about 10 percent will remain disenfranchised.

“This historic victory comes just ahead of the November election, when Virginia voters will have the opportunity to build on this ruling by voting to amend Virginia’s constitution to ensure that any person still disenfranchised as a result of a felony conviction will gain their voting rights back upon their release. This victory is an enormous step towards ending felony disenfranchisement in Virginia, one that Virginians can advance even further at the ballot box this fall.”