Listen 4 min

       Share

       Comment on this story Comment

       Add to your saved stories

       Save

       RICHMOND — A Richmond circuit court judge ruled Tuesday that the Virginia NAACP cannot have access to a database Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) uses to decide whether to restore voting rights to individuals convicted of a felony.

       Fast, informative and written just for locals. Get The 7 DMV newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning. ArrowRight

       The state NAACP filed suit in October under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, seeking documents to explain Youngkin’s criteria for a decision that disproportionately affects African Americans. Virginia is the only state in the country that permanently strips civil rights from anyone convicted of a felony and empowers only the governor to restore rights on a case-by-case basis.

       Youngkin’s three most recent predecessors — governors from both major parties — prioritized expanding efforts to restore voting rights. But the process has slowed dramatically under Youngkin.

       Youngkin requires people convicted of felonies to apply for voting rights

       Where former governor Ralph Northam (D) created a system to automatically submit names for restoration once incarcerated people completed their sentence, returning nearly 200,000 people to voter rolls, Youngkin said earlier this year that he will only consider individuals who apply on their own.

       Advertisement

       Story continues below advertisement

       As the numbers have dropped to a fraction of earlier amounts (from May to October 2022, Youngkin restored about 800 people), civil rights groups have urged Youngkin to explain what factors he considers in each case. The administration released some documents to the Virginia NAACP under a FOIA request, but the group said the process remained murky, so it sought access to the full rights restoration database maintained by Youngkin’s secretary of the commonwealth.

       In Tuesday’s hearing in Richmond, lawyers from the office of state Attorney General Jason S. Miyares (R), representing Youngkin, argued that the database was exempt from state open-records laws because it qualifies as “working papers,” which are shielded from disclosure.

       “It is a confidential process,” state lawyer R. Cooper Vaughan told Judge W. Reilly Marchant. “It should stay in confidence. It is for the governor’s deliberative use.”

       Advertisement

       Story continues below advertisement

       Former Democratic delegate Jerrauld “Jay” Jones, part of a team of lawyers representing the NAACP, questioned Richard Cullen, counsel to the governor, about how the database is used. Cullen said no more than about eight people in the governor’s office have access to the database, which contains personal information about each individual seeking to have their rights restored.

       Share this article Share

       The information is provided with the presumption that it will stay private, Cullen testified, offering the example of someone who had been convicted of a felony 20 years before and would not want it made public now.

       Jones argued that others in the state have access to at least parts of the database, such as local voter registrars who have to find out whether someone who was not on the voting rolls in a previous election has truly been restored by the governor.

       Advertisement

       Story continues below advertisement

       “This information does go beyond the office of the governor,” Jones told the judge. “We’re entitled to see the information in the database.”

       But at the end of an hour-long hearing, Marchant said it was clear that he had to rule in favor of the governor and block the release of the database. “It doesn’t seem to be a close question,” the judge said. The database “is created for the governor and his office for decision-making. It’s clearly a working paper created for his deliberative use.”

       “We think it was the right decision,” Cullen said afterward.

       But the Rev. Cozy Bailey, president of the Virginia conference of the NAACP, said his group and allies will not stop trying to shed light on the governor’s process and get it changed.

       Story continues below advertisement

       “There’s a shroud of secrecy,” Bailey said. “And when we are confronted with secrecy we are concerned that there is something that is hidden that may be inequitable, and that is why we are fighting so hard.”

       The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups have filed suit in federal court to challenge Virginia’s system of felon disenfranchisement. And Democratic leaders who won majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly in November elections have vowed to seek a state constitutional amendment to automatically restore voting rights for people convicted of felonies.

       Share

       15 Comments

       Loading...

       Subscribe to comment and get the full experience. Choose your plan →