VIRGINIA — The Virginia NAACP is suing Gov. Youngkin over an effort to get more documentation about his administration's policy for restoring the voting rights of people previously convicted of felonies.
The lawsuit was filed Friday in Richmond Circuit Court.
"We are frustrated and concerned because we feel that disenfranchisement of voting rights is at stake here," said Robert Barnette, the president of the Virginia NAACP.
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Earlier this year, it was uncovered Gov. Youngkin was changing the process of the previous two governors and requiring people to apply to have their rights restored. The cases are then reviewed.
The NAACP is trying to get more information about the process. In May, they filed a FOIA request to learn more about the criteria he's using to restore rights.
The governor's office shared 600 documents with them, but Barnette says the information was incomplete and said the governor's office has not been responsive to their requests for additional information, so now they're suing.
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"We feel like now our best solution is going through the courts to get this information," Barnette said.
In Virginia, if someone is convicted of a felony, they lose their civil rights, including the right to vote.
Only the governor can restore them.
Previous Governors Terry McAuliffe and Ralph Northam were essentially automatically restoring people's rights once their sentences were complete.
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In response to the lawsuit, a spokesperson for Gov. Youngkin said the office had shared more records than they were required to share.
"In a good faith effort to work with the NAACP, our office underwent an extensive process to fulfill the NAACP's requests," the spokesperson said.
The lawsuit says they want additional information and documents, like emails, to shed light on the process of restoring rights.
"We just need to make sure that people who have completed the process of filling out forms or doing their due diligence have a right to vote," said Barnette.
