Spanberger Restores Voting Rights to More Than 60,000 Virginians

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger's administration announced on July 31-August 1, 2026, that voting and other civil rights have been restored to 66,085 Virginians since she took office in January 2026. This reverses a more restrictive rights-restoration process implemented under her predecessor, Glenn Youngkin. The restored rights allow these individuals, who have past felony convictions, to vote, serve on juries, run for public office, and become notaries public. The announcement comes ahead of a constitutional amendment referendum scheduled for the November 2026 ballot, which would largely remove Virginia governors from the rights-restoration process by establishing automatic restoration. The amendment cleared the General Assembly in two consecutive legislative sessions, and Spanberger signed legislation in February 2026 placing the measure on the ballot. Early voting for the 2026 midterm elections, which will include this referendum, begins roughly seven weeks after the announcement. One source reported that in January 2026, shortly after Spanberger was sworn in, a federal judge ruled that Virginia had been illegally disenfranchising people for 156 years, and that Virginia had been the only state in the country enforcing a lifetime voting ban for any felony conviction; this claim was not corroborated by other reports in this set. The outcome of the November referendum, which would determine whether automatic rights restoration becomes permanent policy independent of gubernatorial discretion, remains pending.