Virginia Democrats blast Youngkin’s voting rights restoration rollback

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RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – Democrats, advocates and those hoping to regain their voting rights called out Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) for changes to Virginia’s rights restoration process, with many comparing the new policy to those from the Jim Crow era.

Raising concerns over the unknown criteria for the policy during a Tuesday press conference, they urged Youngkin to go back to the restoration system used by his predecessors, which included an automatic process for some formerly incarcerated Virginians.

House Minority Leader Don Scott (D-Portsmouth) called Youngkin “the progeny of E. Carter Glass,” the segregationist and lawmaker who led the effort to disenfranchise the Black vote in the commonwealth with the 1902 Virginia Constitution.