Panel advances enabling bill to restore voting rights on release from incarceration

Summary

The subcommittee reported house bill 9 64, the enabling legislation for House Joint Resolution 2, which outlines how voting rights and voter registration would be restored upon release from incarceration and directs correctional facilities to transmit release information to the Department of Elections; the bill was reported 6–2 with amendment.

A patron introduced house bill 9 64 as enabling legislation tied to House Joint Resolution 2, explaining the measure defines terms and procedures for automatically restoring voting rights upon release from incarceration and sets processes for Department of Corrections and local jails to notify the Department of Elections so people can register once released.

Tram Nguyen of New Virginia Majority said the bill creates “automatic procedures so that folks who are released from incarceration are getting their rights back, and they can register to vote seamlessly.” Jane Newell of the League of Women Voters of Virginia and Todd Park of the Virginia Education Association also testified in support, saying immediate restoration of voting rights upon release supports democratic participation and reentry.

A committee motion to report the bill (with an amendment described by the patron as conditioning implementation on voter approval of the constitutional amendment) passed on a recorded vote of 6 to 2. The clerk recorded the bill as reported by that margin.