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More than 300,000 Virginians are unable to vote due to the state's felon disenfranchisement law.

The Democracy Restoration Act

On July 24, 2009 Rep. John Conyers and Sen. Russell Feingold introduced the Democracy Restoration Act, which will automatically restore voting rights in federal elections for persons with criminal convictions who have completed their prison sentences. The law, if passed, would allow four million disenfranchised persons, including 300,000 in Virginia, to vote in federal elections. But it will not require Virginia or any other state to allow felons to vote in state or local elections.

Take Action: Tell your Senators and Representative that you support voting rights restoration and urge them to support passage of the Democracy Restoration Act.

Democracy Restoration Act's Impact on Virginia

Virginia is one of only two states in the nation that permanently disfranchise all felons, requiring an act of the Governor for voting rights to be restored. But there are indications that Virginia is poised for reform. Recent polls show that 60% of Virginia’s voters oppose felon disfranchisement, and the Virginia Senate easily passed a bill this year to amend the Virginia Constitution to change the state’s felon disfranchisement law. Unfortunately, neither the Governor nor the House of Delegates has taken the action needed to move Virginia in the right direction on this important issue.

Although the Democracy Restoration Act does not directly affect the right to vote in state and local elections, it could provide the impetus needed to reform Virginia’s felon disfranchisement law. If the Democracy Restoration Act becomes law, Virginia will have to make a choice between a having a single voter registration system that allows felons to vote in both federal and state elections, and keeping separate voter rolls for federal and state elections (in which felons are allowed to vote in the former but not the latter). Separate systems for federal and state elections are generally considered to be untenable.

Virginia faced a similar dilemma in 1996, when Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act, which required states to allow voters to register for federal elections at DMVs and other public institutions. Virginia could have complied with the law by allowing voters to register at DMV’s for federal elections but not for state elections. However, legislators determined that maintaining two sets of voter registration rolls would be expensive and confusing, so they chose to allow registration at DMVs for both state and federal elections.