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The rundown
House Republicans killed amendments early Tuesday morning that would have automatically restored the voting rights of Virginia’s incarcerated individuals upon their release.
House Republicans also killed SJ5, which would have repealed the same-sex marriage ban in Virginia
A former police officer and current teacher announced his run for the state Senate in the seat currently held by Bryce Reeves
Bryce Reeves’ VA-07 congressional campaign received the endorsement of a 2021 Republican gubernatorial candidate
The latest political headlines from Virginia and across the country
House Republicans kill legislation that would have automatically restored voting rights after being released from prison
by Brandon Jarvis
Republicans on the House Privileges and Elections Subcommittee killed legislation Tuesday morning that would have automatically restored the voting rights for individuals after they are released from prison.
Sponsored by Sen. Mamie Locke (D), the bill already passed 24-16 with bipartisan support in the state Senate. The Republican-held House of Delegates has been their own sort of brick wall against Democratic policies, however. They also killed legislation earlier this week that would have established retail sales of marijuana in Virginia.
The restoration legislation would have established a procedure that upon release from incarceration for a felony conviction and without further action required from the formerly-incarcerated individual, they shall be invested with all political rights, including the right to vote.
Republicans on the subcommittee voted 6-4 to kill the legislation.
“The constitutional amendment I introduced, and which passed the General Assembly last year, would have allowed Virginia’s voters to choose whether every citizen of the Commonwealth could have the power to vote–regardless of criminal history,” Locke said in a statement after the amendment failed to pass. “However, the Subcommittee today chose instead to not only revoke that choice from the voters, but also eliminate the chance for more Virginians to participate in our government. I am highly disappointed, after years of working on this problem, that the Subcommittee chose this route. Let the people vote.”
Republicans also killed a bill that would have repealed Virginia’s illegal constitutional amendment that banned same-sex marriage. In 2006, the General Assembly passed the Marshall-Newman Amendment, which defines marriage as only being between a man and a woman.
“SJ5 would have provided a fundamental dignity and equality to our gay family, friends, and neighbors, and granted Virginians the agency to remove the stain of the so-called ‘marriage amendment’ from the Constitution,” said Sen. Adam Ebbin, the sponsor of the legislation to repeal the amendment. “What the House told Virginia’s LGBT community this morning was that not only are they considered second-class citizens, but they also should have no recourse to change that status.”
The law is now defunct, anyways, due to the Supreme Court ruling in 2015 that same-sex marriage rights are guaranteed in the United States.
The failed legislation would have established that the right to marry is a fundamental right in the Virginia Constitution and required the commonwealth and its political subdivisions and agents to issue marriage licenses, recognize marriages, and treat all marriages equally under the law, regardless of the sex or gender of the parties to the marriage.
“History already doesn’t look kindly on the Marshall Newman amendment and it won’t look kindly on us if we don’t take action,” Del. Schuyler VanValkenburg said before the committee killed the legislation.
