Virginia: Records reveal little advance word to officials on voting-rights move | Richmond Times–Dispatch

When Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced that he was restoring the political rights of about 206,000 felons, it came as no surprise to New Virginia Majority, which had fliers already printed encouraging would-be voters to register immediately. The progressive activist group got an official invite days ahead of the April 22 news conference and Tram Nguyen, the group’s co-executive director, had more than three weeks’ notice that the order was coming. “Now that I’m home and have let the news sink in, I’m literally sitting here crying,” Nguyen wrote in a March 30 email to Secretary of the Commonwealth Kelly Thomasson, then a deputy in the office, after the two met earlier in the day. “We’ve been asking for this since the Kaine administration. What this administration is doing is a game changer in so many ways—in particular, for the lives that you’re touching. THANK YOU!”

Virginia: GOP delegate sues for right not to vote for Trump at convention | The Daily Progress

Carroll Correll Jr., a Winchester attorney and Republican delegate to the party’s national convention next month, has filed a federal lawsuit asking for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction allowing him to avoid casting a vote for Donald Trump. “Correll believes that Donald Trump is unfit to serve as president of the United States and that voting for Donald Trump would therefore violate Correll’s conscience,” according to the lawsuit filed Friday. “Accordingly, Correll will not vote for Donald Trump on the first ballot, or any other ballot, at the national convention. He will cast his vote on the first ballot, and on any additional ballots, for a candidate whom he believes is fit to serve as president.”

Virginia: Prosecutors argue against McAuliffe’s order on rights | Associated Press

A bipartisan group of 43 commonwealth’s attorneys are fighting Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s restoration of voting and other rights for more than 200,000 ex-felons. In a brief filed Friday with the Virginia Supreme Court, the prosecutors said each ex-felon’s rights restoration should be handled individually, rather than en masse, in order to avoid allowing unfit ex-felons the right to own a gun or sit on a jury. “The governor’s blanket restoration order makes no distinction among felons, treating the nonviolent felon the same as the cold-blooded killer, and the one-time offender the same as the career criminal,” the brief said. “The governor’s order thus hinders commonwealth’s attorneys’ ability to discharge their duties.”

Virginia: State officials pull 132 confined sex offenders from list of eligible voters | The Washington Post

State officials abruptly removed 132 sex offenders from Virginia’s list of eligible voters last week, reacting to the latest problem emerging from Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s sweeping move to restore voting rights to felons who had served out their sentences. A spokesman for McAuliffe (D) said that the offenders, who are confined in a treatment facility under a form of civil commitment, had appeared on the list of eligible voters by mistake. “Those folks should not have been on the list, and they are not there now,” spokesman Brian Coy said. A local prosecutor contends there was no mistake. She says state officials changed the records to try to hide a politically awkward accident — that McAuliffe inadvertently restored voting rights to some of Virginia’s worst sexual predators.

Virginia: Second lawsuit filed over McAuliffe order on felon voting rights | Richmond Times-Dispatch

A conservative legal advocacy group has filed a second challenge to Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s executive order that restored voting rights for roughly 206,000 Virginia felons. Washington-based Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit Monday in Bedford County Circuit Court on behalf of five Bedford voters who argue they’ll be harmed by the votes of felons who have been unlawfully registered to vote. “Unless an injunction is granted, plaintiffs’ lawful votes will be canceled out, and their voting power will be diluted, by votes cast by individuals who are not eligible to vote under Virginia’s laws and Constitution,” the lawsuit states. Rick Boyer, a Lynchburg-area lawyer and Republican activist is listed as an attorney for the plaintiffs along with James F. Petersen, a Judicial Watch attorney in Washington.

Virginia: Voting rights restoration case to go before Virginia Supreme Court | Roanoke Times

The Supreme Court of Virginia will hold a special session July 19 to take up the Republican challenge to Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s order that restored voting rights for more than 200,000 felons. Republican leaders in the General Assembly had sought to have the case heard as early as next month. They argued in court filings that the matter should be decided by Aug. 25 at the latest to avoid “casting doubt on the legitimacy” of the November elections. The McAuliffe administration has refused to release the list of the 206,000 felons, saying that state election law exempts from the Virginia Freedom of Information Act individual records maintained in the state’s voter registration system. Edgardo Cortes, commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections, asserted in an email Wednesday that “all information received from other entities for the purpose of maintaining accurate voter registration records” is “part of our statewide voter registration system and covered by this exemption.”

Virginia: Supreme Court to Review Virginia Redistricting Case | Wall Street Journal

The Supreme Court on Monday said it would intervene in another political redistricting case from Virginia to consider whether state office voting lines were racially gerrymandered. The high court earlier this year examined whether the Republican-led state legislature discriminated against African-Americans in the way they drew Virginia’s districts for the U.S. Congress, a case that ended without a ruling on the merits. In the earlier case a lower court said lawmakers had illegally packed black voters into one district, diluting their influence in other districts. That litigation ended after the Supreme Court said three Republican congressmen didn’t have legal standing to appeal.

Virginia: State at Center of Racially Charged Fight Over the Right of Felons to Vote | The New York Times

On the night Barack Obama became the nation’s first black president, Leah Taylor, a fast-food worker and African-American mother of six, stayed up until 2 a.m. watching the election returns. “I knew that was history, and I wanted to be a part of it,” she said. But she did not vote. Ms. Taylor, 45, has never voted. In 1991, when she was 20, she was stripped of her voting rights after being convicted of selling crack cocaine and sent to jail for a year. So she was stunned when an organizer from a progressive group, New Virginia Majority, showed up one recent afternoon at the church soup kitchen where she eats lunch and said he could register her. “Your rights have been restored!” the organizer, Assadique Abdul-Rahman, declared with a theatrical flourish, waving an executive order signed in April by Gov. Terry McAuliffe. Ms. Taylor, so moved she nearly cried, promptly signed up. Thus did Ms. Taylor join a wave of newly eligible voters, all with criminal pasts, signing up in Virginia. But what Mr. McAuliffe granted, the Virginia Supreme Court may now take away. Top Republicans in the state legislature are seeking to block Mr. McAuliffe’s sweeping order, which re-enfranchised 206,000 Virginians who have completed sentences, probation or parole. Last week, the Supreme Court announced a special session to hear arguments in July — in time to rule before the November election.

Virginia: Supreme Court takes case claiming racial gerrymandering in Virginia | Politico

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a Virginia case that could clarify how much consideration of race is permissible when legislatures or other bodies redraw district lines. The justices announced Monday that they will wade into a legal challenge to Virginia’s 2011 redistricting for the state House of Delegates. Civil rights groups and Democrats criticized the GOP-led process for packing too many African-American voters into so-called majority-minority districts. “This case gives the Supreme Court the opportunity to further clarify how exactly to determine whether race has been taken into account too much in the drawing of district lines,” said Rick Hasen, a professor of election law at University of California at Irvine. “It’s kind of a Goldilocks problem. You must take race into account somewhat to comply with the Voting Rights Act, but if you take into account too much the racial considerations you can get in trouble as well. The question is how do you know when you’ve gotten it just right.”

Virginia: State Supreme Court calls special session to hear GOP challenge on felon voting rights | Richmond Times-Dispatch

The Supreme Court of Virginia will hold a special session on July 19 to take up the Republican challenge to Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s order restoring voting rights for more than 200,000 felons. Republican leaders in the General Assembly had sought to have the case heard as early as next month, arguing in court filings that the matter should be decided by Aug. 25 at the latest to avoid “casting doubt on the legitimacy” of the November election. “We are pleased the Supreme Court recognizes the urgency of our challenge to Governor McAuliffe’s unprecedented and unconstitutional expansion of executive power,” House of Delegates Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford, said in a statement Wednesday. Howell is a plaintiff in the case along with Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr., R-James City, and four voters.

Virginia: Supreme Court takes up challenge to McAuliffe rights restoration order | The Washington Post

The Virginia Supreme Court next month will hear a legal challenge to Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s order restoring the voting rights of more than 200,000 felons. The court will take up the lawsuit, filed by state Republicans, on July 19 in Richmond during a special session scheduled to accommodate this and other cases. The decision came in response to Republicans’ request for an accelerated timeline. They would like the court to issue a ruling well ahead of the November general election. In their lawsuit, House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford), Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. (R-James City) and four voters argued that McAuliffe (D) could not legally restore rights to nearly a quarter-million felons with one sweeping executive order. Until now, governors restored voting rights to felons on a case-by-case basis. “We are pleased the Supreme Court recognizes the urgency of our challenge to Governor McAuliffe’s unprecedented and unconstitutional expansion of executive power,” Howell said in a statement.

Virginia: Herring defends McAuliffe’s voting rights order in face of GOP lawsuit | The Washington Post

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring said Friday that Gov. Terry McAuliffe acted within his constitutional authority when he restored voting rights to more than 200,000 felons. Herring (D), acting as the state’s attorney, defended the governor’s action in a court filing in which he also objected to Republicans’ request for the Virginia Supreme Court to accelerate the timetable for a lawsuit they filed this week to stop the restoration of rights. The legal battle is the latest showdown between the Democratic governor and his allies and the Republican-controlled General Assembly over voting rights. Republican leaders have accused McAuliffe (D) of trying to add potential voters to the rolls to bolster the presidential bid of his friend, Hillary Clinton. McAuliffe denied any political motives and framed the order as a removal of the last vestige of laws such as poll taxes and literacy tests that disproportionately affected the voting rights of African Americans. One in 4 African Americans in Virginia had been banned from voting because of laws restricting the rights of those with convictions.

Virginia: Justices Let Court-Imposed Redistricting Stand in Virginia | The New York Times

The Supreme Court on Monday left in place a court-imposed congressional redistricting map in Virginia, dismissing a challenge from three Republican congressmen. The court’s brief, unanimous decision said the members of Congress had not shown that they had suffered the sort of direct and concrete injury that gave them standing to sue. The court, therefore, did not rule on the larger issues in the case, Wittman v. Personhuballah, No. 14-1504, which concerned the role race may play in drawing legislative maps. “We cannot decide the merits of this case unless the intervenor members of Congress challenging the district court’s racial-gerrymandering decision have standing,” Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote for the court. “We conclude that the intervenors now lack standing. We must therefore dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction.”

Virginia: Democrats to appeal voter ID case | Daily Press

The Democrats behind a lawsuit challenging Virginia’s voter ID law will appeal last week’s loss in district court to the U.S. Court of Appeals, the lead attorney said Thursday. The group filed its notice of appeal Wednesday, and will ask for an expedited review by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond. “We look forward to the Court of Appeals considering this important case as quickly as possible,” attorney Marc Elias said in an email. “It would be inexplicable and disappointing for the state to try to slow walk the appeal in this case. The citizens of Virginia deserve a prompt hearing in time to avoid disenfranchising voters in advance of the 2016 election.”

Virginia: Registrars, state working to verify felons’ rights restored for June primary | Richmond Times-Dispatch

The deadline to register to vote in primary elections June 14 passed at midnight, but time hasn’t run out for felons who have applied but await verification that their civil rights were restored under the order signed by Gov. Terry McAuliffe on April 22. State Elections Commissioner Edgardo Cortes advised local registrars on Monday that, if someone filed a complete registration application by the deadline but doesn’t have their rights verified until later, “that applicant has met the applicable close-of-books deadline and should be processed for participation in the June 14 primary election.” Almost 4,000 people had registered to vote successfully by May 17 under the governor’s restoration order, which General Assembly Republicans sued on Monday to overturn.

Virginia: GOP sues to strip new voting rights from 206,000 Virginia felons | The Washington Post

Leaders of Virginia’s House and Senate went straight to the state’s highest court on Monday in a bid to reverse Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s sweeping order to restore voting rights to 206,000 felons. Skipping lower courts, they filed a lawsuit directly with the Supreme Court of Virginia, contending that Mr. McAuliffe, a Democrat, exceeded his authority in April when he restored voting rights to felons en masse instead of individually. The lawsuit — bankrolled by private donations and political funds, Republicans noted, not taxpayer funds — presents a complex constitutional question with the urgency of presidential election-year politics. Republicans are seeking an expedited review so that reinstated ex-cons who have registered to vote can be stripped from the rolls ahead of November. Prior Virginia governors have taken up the cause of restoring felons’ voting rights, but none with anything close to Mr. McAuliffe’s scale and speed.

Virginia: Assembly Republicans sue McAuliffe over mass rights restoration order | Richmond Times-Dispatch

Republicans in the Virginia General Assembly filed a lawsuit Monday in the Supreme Court of Virginia challenging Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s authority to order a mass restoration of rights April 22, covering more than 200,000 felons who served their time. The lawsuit, led by Speaker of the House William J. Howell, R-Stafford, and Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr., R-James City, argues that McAuliffe exceeded his executive authority under the state constitution when he issued the order. “The Constitution of Virginia forbids this unprecedented assertion of executive authority,” the filing states. “Governor McAuliffe’s executive order defies the plain text of the Constitution, flouts the separation of powers, and has no precedent in the annals of Virginia history. The governor simply may not, with a stroke of the pen, unilaterally suspend and amend the Constitution.”

Virginia: U.S. judge upholds Virginia voter ID law | Richmond Times-Dispatch

A federal judge has upheld Virginia’s voter ID law challenged by the Democratic Party of Virginia and two voters alleging the Republican-controlled state legislature enacted it to curb the number of young and minority voters. “Mindful that the court’s mission is to judge not the wisdom of the Virginia voter ID law, but rather its constitutionality, this court cannot say that plaintiffs have met their burden of proof in showing by a preponderance of the evidence that the Virginia voter ID law … contravenes the Voting Rights Act, the First Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment, the Fifteenth Amendment, or the Twenty-Sixth Amendment,” U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson wrote Thursday. Hudson’s ruling concluded: “While the merits of this voter identification law, and indeed all aspects of Virginia’s voting regime, can be reasonably debated, it remains true that Virginia has created a scheme of laws to accommodate all people in their right to vote. From in-person voting, to an absentee option, to provisional ballots with the ability to cure, and the provision of free voter IDs, Virginia has provided all of its citizens with an equal opportunity to participate in the electoral process.”

Virginia: Virginia Democrats lose lawsuit over voter ID | The Washington Post

A federal judge on Thursday upheld Virginia’s voter- identification requirement, dealing a blow to a national push by Democrats to remove laws they say disenfranchise minority and poor voters. Republicans applauded the decision as “a victory for the integrity of Virginia’s elections,” while Democrats called it a disappointment and said they may appeal. If the lawsuit ultimately succeeds, it could give Democrats an edge in the presidential race in a swing state with a recent spate of close elections. In his 62-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson rejected the argument that a photo-ID requirement was “arbitrary and unfair” and severely burdened voters who tend to favor Democratic candidates.

Virginia: Planning to cast a write-in for president? Don’t expect it to count in Virginia | Richmond Times-Dispatch

If you can’t bring yourself to vote for either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump in November, you can always write in your presidential candidate of choice. Just don’t expect it to count. Write-in votes for president aren’t counted in Virginia unless the candidate has declared the candidacy and filed a slate of electors with state elections officials. “There is a write-in space on the ballot, but unless the candidate has adhered to proper procedures” as set forth in Section 24.2-644 of the Code of Virginia, “those write-ins don’t count,” said Martin Mash, confidential policy adviser to the Virginia Department of Elections. Under section 24.2-644 (C) of the Code of Virginia, “Write-in votes for president and vice president shall be counted only for candidates who have filed a joint declaration of intent to be write-in candidates for the offices with the secretary of the State Board (of Elections) not less than ten days before the date of the presidential election.”

Virginia: Civic Groups Are Rushing To Register Newly Eligible Ex-Offenders In Virginia | Huffington Post

“I’m just overwhelmed,” John Barbee said, after he finished filling out a voter registration form in the basement of a Baptist church in Richmond Thursday. The 62-year-old, who was released from prison in 1972, had been trying to register for the past eight years but had been stymied repeatedly by Virginia’s strict felony disenfranchisement law. Barbee was able to register Thursday because Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe signed an executive order on April 22 restoring voting rights to over 200,000 people with past felony convictions who have completed their supervised probation or parole. Previously, ex-offenders had to individually petition the governor to be re-enfranchised. “I had just gave up on the system, period, for trying to help me get registered,” he told The Huffington Post. After he finished filling out the registration form, he turned to his wife. “I feel like a citizen now,” he told her.

Virginia: State works to help registrars verify felons’ voting rights restored | Richmond Times-Dispatch

Trust, but verify. Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s administration is taking to heart President Ronald Reagan’s famous maxim as the state works with local registrars to verify that felons’ voting rights were restored when the governor signed an order April 22 that opened the door to full civil rights for more than 206,000 Virginians who have done their time for felony convictions. For many, verification has required nothing more than a quick search in one of two state databases fully updated a week after McAuliffe’s order to show when felons’ rights had been restored. Almost 2,100 had registered to vote by midday Thursday.

Virginia: GOP lawmakers to sue over felons’ voting rights | Associated Press

Republican lawmakers in Virginia will file a lawsuit challenging Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s decision to allow more than 200,000 convicted felons to vote in November, GOP leaders said Monday. Republicans argue the governor has overstepped his constitutional authority with a clear political ploy designed to help the campaign of his friend and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the important swing state this fall. “Gov. McAuliffe’s flagrant disregard for the Constitution of Virginia and the rule of law must not go unchecked,” Senate Republican Leader Thomas Norment said in a statement. He added that McAuliffe’s predecessors and previous attorneys general examined this issue and concluded Virginia’s governor can’t issue blanket restorations.

Virginia: McAuliffe hits back at planned suit over felon voting rights | WTOP

Republicans in the Virginia General Assembly are planning to sue Gov. Terry McAuliffe over his executive action to restore voting rights to more than 200,000 felons who have served their sentences, but the Democratic governor says he’s not worried. “I have the legal authority and the moral authority” to take the action, McAuliffe told WTOP on Wednesday morning. “Virginia was [until 2013] one of four states that permanently did not allow a felon to get their voting rights back unless they went through this arduous process,” he said. “What I did was to join what 40 other states have done. … Why should Virginia be at the bottom of the heap [regarding] restoring felons’ rights?” Virginia House Speaker Bill Howell and Senate Majority Leader Thomas Norment announced on Monday that they’ve retained a lawyer to challenge McAuliffe’s order, with Norment saying in a statement that “we are prepared to uphold the Constitution of Virginia and the rule of law by challenging Governor McAuliffe’s order in court.”

Virginia: Taxpayer costs approach $4 million in election lawsuits | Daily Press

Taxpayers have spent $3.7 million and counting on private attorneys in three redistricting lawsuits, as well as a fourth case targeting the state’s voter ID law. That includes nearly $180,000 billed so far by a state senator’s law firm, which represents her colleagues from both sides of the aisle in their ongoing effort to keep secret emails about the 2011 drawing of election maps. Those four state senators, as well as two former ones, each face $100 daily fines for not complying with a court order to turn those documents over. Unless a pending appeal before the state Supreme Court succeeds, taxpayers will be liable for the fines.

Virginia: Republicans Weigh Court Challenge to Voting Rights for Felons | The New York Times

Republican lawmakers in Virginia said on Monday that they were considering a court challenge to Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s decision to restore voting rights to more than 200,000 convicted felons, opening the door to a legal battle that could create uncertainties about their ability to vote in November. “Governor McAuliffe’s flagrant disregard for the Constitution of Virginia and the rule of law must not go unchecked,” Thomas K. Norment Jr., a Republican and the majority leader of Virginia’s State Senate, said. On Monday, Mr. Norment and another Republican, William J. Howell, the speaker of the state’s House of Delegates, said they had retained Charles J. Cooper, a prominent conservative lawyer who argued before the Supreme Court in support of California’s onetime ban on same-sex marriage, “to examine the legal options to remedy this Washington-style overreach by the executive branch.” Mr. McAuliffe issued an order on April 22 that effectively did away with his state’s Civil War-era limitations on voting rights for convicted felons, many of whom are African-Americans, by allowing those who have completed their prison and parole or probation time to vote.

Virginia: Elections board adopts new voter registration form on party-line vote | Richmond Times-Dispatch

This year’s impending presidential election loomed large in a party-line vote by the State Board of Elections on Thursday to overhaul Virginia’s voter registration form to make it easier for Virginians to vote. In a 2-1 vote , the board adopted changes to the form, despite objections by local registrars who said they were blindsided when the proposed new form and revised regulations were posted at the beginning of this week. “This is not ready in any way, shape or form for prime time,” said Stafford County Registrar Greg Riddlemoser. He called it “foolishness” to adopt a new form just before a presidential election expected to increase voter turnout and registrars’ workload.

Virginia: McAuliffe restores voting rights for 206K ex-felons; GOP calls it move to boost Clinton | Richmond Times-Dispatch

Gov. Terry McAuliffe signed an executive order Friday restoring the voting rights of 206,000 ex-felons, a sweeping action the governor said was aimed largely at rectifying Virginia’s “long and sad history” of suppressing African-American voting power. The move, coming in a presidential election year, outraged Republicans who accused McAuliffe of abusing his power to help longtime ally Hillary Clinton win a battleground state by putting more likely Democratic voters on the books. The governor’s order applies to all violent and nonviolent felons who had finished their sentence and supervised release as of Friday, even those who have not applied for a restoration of rights. Previous Virginia governors have restored rights on an individual basis, but none has done it for an entire category of offenders with one pen stroke. The order stops short of creating automatic restoration of rights for all ex-offenders, because McAuliffe will have to sign similar orders on a monthly basis moving forward. Still, the order is a historic shift away from Virginia’s policy of lifetime disenfranchisement for those convicted of serious crimes.The governor’s order applies to all violent and nonviolent felons who had finished their sentence and supervised release as of Friday, even those who have not applied for a restoration of rights. Previous Virginia governors have restored rights on an individual basis, but none has done it for an entire category of offenders with one pen stroke. The order stops short of creating automatic restoration of rights for all ex-offenders, because McAuliffe will have to sign similar orders on a monthly basis moving forward. Still, the order is a historic shift away from Virginia’s policy of lifetime disenfranchisement for those convicted of serious crimes.

Virginia: Massive restoration of felon voting rights challenges registrars | Richmond Times-Dispatch

Hundreds of felons have rushed to register to vote in Richmond and Henrico County since Gov. Terry McAuliffe restored the civil rights of 206,000 last week, but local registrars say the state hasn’t given them the information they need to approve applications. Richmond General Registrar J. Kirk Showalter said she had been able to verify just two of the 102 applications the office had received by Tuesday night, while Henrico Registrar Mark J. Coakley said his office was working through more than 200 online requests and setting aside those it had accepted in case of later questions about an ex-offender’s status. They and other registrars across Virginia say the state wasn’t ready to carry out McAuliffe’s sweeping executive order on Friday that restored voting and other civil rights. “This is the time when government went too fast,” Coakley said. But McAuliffe administration officials said they warned from the beginning that it would take time to update online state databases to show the restoration of rights for so many people. “This is a massive administrative undertaking, but it is the right thing to do,” spokesman Brian Coy said.