A federal judge in Richmond told the Virginia Attorney General’s office on Monday some felons now have the right to vote in Virginia. But whether or not that includes those currently incarcerated is a bit more complicated.
U. S. District Judge John Gibney was clear when asked by Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones who should be allowed to vote in the wake of a ruling that found longstanding state law rooted in Jim Crow-era discrimination barred such voters.
“The defendants SHALL not deny a person attempting to register to vote or cancel a person’s existing registration except for convictions of the following common-law felonies,” Gibney wrote Monday, before listing 11 such felonies, including arson, manslaughter, rape and others. The ruling is likely to create thousands of new voters who had their rights revoked upon conviction.
But Jones, in a filing last month, sought to amend the ruling to not require “the Commonwealth… to facilitate casting of ballots by class members while incarcerated.” The legal brief did not explain why his office opposed such voting.
Voting while incarcerated no matter the offense is legal in Maine and Vermont. Mississippi, Alaska and Alabama extend the right to some prisoners. .
As for Monday’s ruling, “To be clear,” the judge wrote, “the injunction does not address how prisoners register or vote, and imposes no duties on the defendants in that regard.”
In a statement a spokesperson for Jones said the AG “looks forward to working with the Court to implement the relief ordered by the judge.”
Vishal Agraharkar is the ACLU attorney on the case. He called Monday’s ruling a win.
“We think under state law, generally, eligible voters should be allowed to cast a ballot regardless of where they are," Agraharkar told Radio IQ. "We think state leaders should be celebrating this as a chance to correct a 150-year-old injustice.”
Judge Gibney set a May 1 deadline for the Virginia Department of Elections to create guidelines for those impacted by his ruling.
