Voting Rights Lawsuit by NOLEF Turns Against Youngkin Heats Up, Trish White-Boyd Drops Three Ads in Two Weeks
➡️ Early voting in Virginia started on Sept. 22, 2023.
➡️ Senator Mamie Locke’s 20th Annual Sneaker Ball 👟 is in 5 days on Oct. 14.
➡️ You have until October 16, 2023 to register to vote.
➡️ Election Day 2023 is in 29 days on Nov. 7, 2023. Current breakdown Virginia Senate 22D-18R. Virginia House: 49R-46D.
Rights Restoration: Judge Tells Parties to Get Ready for Discovery
A federal lawsuit filed in July seeking to restore the voting rights of former felons by a Richmond civil rights group against Governor Glenn Youngkin and former Secretary of the Commonwealth Kay Coles James was the subject of a hearing on Friday, Oct. 6.
632 days into Youngkin’s time as Governor his voting rights process for former felons remains one of the biggest mysteries in the Commonwealth
Three Virginia Governors in a row: McDonnell (8,000 voting rights restored), McAuliffe (173,000 rights restored) and Northam (126,000 rights restored) restored over 300,000 voters who were convicted of a felony. After Youngkin became Governor of Virginia in January 2022, the number of voting rights restored plummeted and the process to obtain the right to vote for former felons was rendered an ongoing mystery.
In July, after Youngkin and James provided no clear answers to the Virginia NAACP as to exactly what their rights restoration process was, the Virginia NAACP asserted, “Secretary James attempted to sidestep simple questions about the restoration of rights process.”
Legislators, press and Virginia residents looking for policy on how voting rights are restored for felons have found no answers from Team Youngkin.
Virginia is the only state in America that gives the Governor the singular power to decided if a former felon can vote.
Judge John Adrian Gibney Jr. in the Eastern District of Virginia presided on October 6, saying, “it is apparent that there are factual issues that must be developed.”
Nolef Turns, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit in Richmond, filed a lawsuit on behalf of former felons Gregory Williams of Chesapeake, Va. and George Hawkins of Richmond, Va. Both Williams and Hawkins were denied their right to vote by Glenn Youngkin.
RACIST HISTORY. The first known attempt to end voting for felons was in 1792 in Kentucky and the first law was passed in Connecticut in 1818. The surge of felony disenfranchisement laws after the Civil War were a strategy to disenfranchise Blacks from voting. The Black Codes, established after the Civil War placed severe penalties for petty crimes on Black Americans.
Nolef Turns was founded in 2016 as an all-volunteer group to advocate for people with felony convictions throughout Virginia. It was established to build a network of resources to help individuals live self-sufficient lives after they have completed their sentences. Nolef Turns, Inc. now has four paid staff members who work with those affected by the criminal justice system.
Download the entire lawsuit below:
Trish White-Boyd Drops Three Ads in Two Weeks
In her contents against State Senator David Sutterlein in Senate District 4, Roanoke City Council Chair Trish White Boyd has released three ads in two weeks. The ads are below.
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