Where have all the voting rights gone? LWV-VA calls for an investigation

League of Women Voters of VA (LWV-VA) called for an independent investigation of the purging of at least 3,400 returning citizens from the voting rolls across the state.

LWV-VA President Joan Porte said, “Virginia is the only state to give sole and unfettered control over how and if people get their voting rights restored to the governor.  This system is a tragic holdover from our Jim Crow era laws, and the time is long overdue for this law to be replaced.”

Porte continued that it was shocking when the Department of Elections stated late last Friday night that it was not 270 people who were disenfranchised as they had originally said, but 3,400. in fact, the numbers have varied from 270 to 17.000, so the exact number is not known.

”We have no idea how many people will be denied their right to vote next week, on Election Day, because of this mass disenfranchisement. Nor do we know how many will stay away out of fear. The League of Women Voters of Virginia supports an immediate outside investigation of what has happened. In addition, we again call upon the General Assembly to pass laws that immediately reinstate a person’s voting rights upon release from prison.”