The 6 Ways Glenn Youngkin's GOP is Targeting Voters for Removal or Making Voting Harder
➡️ Early voting in Virginia begins today, Sept. 22, 2023.
➡️ Senator L. Louise Lucas’ Afternoon on Crystal Lake is in 8 days on Sept. 30.
➡️ Fmr. Delegate Nadarius Clark’s Power of the 757 Gala is in 8 days on Sept. 30, 2023.
➡️ Senator Mamie Locke’s 20th Annual Sneaker Ball 👟 is in 22 days on Oct. 14.
➡️ Election Day 2023 is in 46 days on Nov. 7, 2023.
The 6 Ways Glenn Youngkin's GOP is Targeting Voters for Removal or Making Voting Harder in Virginia
Today, September 22, is the day early voting begins in Virginia. Control of the Virginia House and Senate is on the line as is the future of democracy as the many members of the GOP embrace government intervention in personal health decisions, book bans, deliberate misinformation and election interference.
Virginia’s Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin is pushing Republican voters to vote early — a complete policy 360 degree switch for the GOP. But alternatively, Youngkin and Virginia Republicans are pushing several under the radar policies that take voters off the rolls and/or make it more difficult for Virginia’s citizens to vote.
Black voters who often support the Democratic Party are a specific target for Republican policy makers when it comes to making it harder to vote.
REPUBLICANS CLOSING LOCATIONS, ENDING SOULS TO THE POLLS. A Republican controlled electoral board moved to close early voting locations in South Richmond in July. What city in Virginia has the highest population of Black people: Richmond. The Republican push to close voting locations in Black cites was seen in Richmond, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake.
Republicans closed eight early voting locations in Chesapeake and ended Sunday voting in eight localities around Virginia — therefore eliminating Souls to the Polls events used by Black voters to encourage voter turnout and participation.
RELATED: Electoral board closes downtown and South Richmond early voting locations (Axios/July 2023)
RELATED: GOP electoral board’s move to cut Richmond early voting sites may have been illegal (Virginia Mercury/July 2023)
A report in Axios on July 27, 2023 🚩 RELATED: Chesapeake OKs plan to cut 2 early voting locations, despite concerns about impact on minority communities (Virginian-Pilot: Aug. 17, 2023)
NEW WAYS TO KILL A VOTE AFTER RESTORATION? The Youngkin Administration is apparently taking away the voting rights of Virginia citizens who have already had their rights restored. But is the Youngkin Administration treating parole violations as “convictions” as well? If so, that could explain the high number of individuals (10,558?) whose voting rights have been killed as listed in the annual Virginia Department of Elections report. Are parole violations being defined as “new” convictions? This would be a new previously undeclared way to reverse rights restoration. Perhaps a lawsuit featuring someone with standing could unpack that question.
From the annual Virginia Department of Elections report:
The full report:
LEAVING ERIC. For no reason explained publicly by Youngkin, Gov. Youngkin’s Commissioner of Elections Susan Beals removed Virginia from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) in May. With no evidence presented, several Republican governors have linked ERIC to unsubstantiated MAGA-drived conspiracy theories to discredit ERIC. Data security experts have questioned Youngkin’s move to disconnect Virginia from the Electronic Registration Information Center.
🚩 RELATED: Virginia joins list of GOP states leaving bipartisan effort to combat voter fraud amid conspiracies (AP: May 12, 2023)
A HOST OF VOTING RELATED SCREW UPS. In October 2022, Virginia Commissioner of Elections Susan Beals took “responsibility for the mistakes” after her office, the Virginia Department of Elections, mistakenly sent 176,000 voting location change cards to people’s listed residence, rather than the P.O. Box they specified (often used in rural Virginia) as their listed mailing address.
RELATED: Printer takes responsibility for incorrect voter postcards sent to thousands of Virginians
In late 2022, the Virginia Department of Elections sent 3,500 voters the wrong information regarding their voting status that included the line, “you are ineligible to vote because you did not declare yourself a United States citizen.” This was also blamed on an IT issue.
In the summer of 2022 there was yet another alleged “IT glitch” that prompted 107,000 voter registration files sent to the Department of Motor Vehicles left unprocessed.
YOUNGKIN ENDS RESTORATION. In March 2023, Gov. Glenn Youngkin ended the policy of automatically restoring voting rights to Virginia residents who had completed their felony sentences. Virginia is now the only state in the nation that kills voting rights for everyone who commits a felony. The only way to get back voting rights for those individuals is Youngkin’s approval. The policy was a reversal from the last three Virginia Governors.
“In Virginia, governors have used their constitutional powers to restore the vote to more than 300,000 former felons since Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, first made restoration automatic for some in 2013,” wrote the New York Times in April 2023. Currently the process of rights restoration in Virginia is a mystery under Youngkin, including how people have actually had their rights restored and what the process is.
The link between disproportionate incarceration, arrests and traffic stops of Black Virginians and then targeting voting rights has been a clear strategic way to eliminate Black voters from the rolls for decades. The enterprise of damaging individuals voting rights based on felonies has a long history in Virginia and the South and is connected to the Republican push to increase the number of felonies in the Virginia code.
RELATED: Youngkin administration now requires felons to apply to get their voting rights back
260,653 VOTERS INACTIVE… PERMANENT ABSENTEE LIST GAMES? According to the National Council of State Legislators, “five states and Washington, D.C., allow any voter to join a permanent absentee/mail ballot list and will mail that voter an absentee ballot for each election going forward: Arizona, District of Columbia, Maryland, Montana, New Jersey and Virginia.” From the Virginia Department of Elections report:
But in Virginia under the Youngkin Administration, voters are being marked as “inactive” and they are being purged from the permanent absentee voter list if they move or failed to respond to a letter
THIS SUNDAY IN RICHMOND:
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