NORFOLK, Va. — After serving time in prison for embezzlement, Shawn Weneta knows firsthand what it's like to get your voting rights back.
"There's a whole lot of things that come from having your rights restored that people might not appreciate that have never lost them," Weneta told News 3.
The number of people getting their rights restored is getting smaller, according to an annual report from the Secretary of the Commonwealth.
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Report raises new questions over Virginia felon voting rights restoration
Last year, about 2,600 people had their rights restored, which was lower than the 4,000 or so in 2022.
It's also certainly not keeping pace with the 126,000 people former Gov. Ralph Northam restored during his four-year term.
"We were really disappointed it was down quite a bit from the year prior," said Weneta.
Virginia is one of two states where only the governor can restore someone's rights following a felony conviction.
Watch previous coverage: Report raises new questions over Virginia felon voting rights restoration
Early on in his administration, the governor's office put out a press release announcing he had restored 3,400 people's rights in his first three months in office.
Then, about a year ago, it was uncovered the Youngkin Administration was requiring people to apply and then reviewing them on a case-by-case basis.
"We want to make sure that we are seeing everyone that comes out in a way that they deserve to be seen and that is an individual review," Youngkin told reporters last year. "It wasn't happening before, and it will happen now."
Advocates like Weneta, who is now a policy strategist for the ACLU of Virginia, say they don't have clear answers on how the governor is deciding to restore rights.
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"It's disappointing for an administration that talks about government efficiency and wanting to streamlining processes and get government out of the way of individual rights and individual freedoms to actually be putting more red tape and roadblocks in the way," said Weneta.
A spokesperson for Youngkin sent News 3 a lengthy portion of a legal brief explaining the process his administration uses for restoring rights.
Multiple state agencies review applications and a recommendation is made to the governor, who uses his discretion to approve or deny restoring rights.
The brief says he takes this power seriously.
