Spanberger voting-rights letters sent to dead felons amid ballot access push
Deceased Virginians with felony convictions are reportedly among those receiving voting-rights restoration letters under Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who announced in July that she had restored voting rights to 66,000 people...
By Fox News · Fox News
Deceased Virginians with felony convictions are reportedly among those receiving voting-rights restoration letters under Gov. Abigail Spanberger , who announced in July that she had restored voting rights to 66,000 people with felony convictions. The notices come as Virginia separately implements a federal court ruling that sharply narrowed which felony convictions can trigger disenfranchisement, while voters this fall will decide whether to amend the state constitution to automatically restore voting rights upon release from incarceration. "I've been a lawyer for 27 years and in every minute of my career, when you were convicted of a felony, you lose your voting rights. The way you get those back is you have to petition the governor and then the governor can review your case and determine whether the civil rights of a convicted felon should be restored," Virginia Beach attorney Tim Anderson told Fox News Digital on Monday. Anderson, who shared posts showing letters from Spanberger and her administration sent to families of deceased recipients, said the situation is "one or the other" — either Richmond is not vetting who receives the restoration notifications or its vetting is not thorough enough to catch deceased recipients. SPANBERGER SPARKS OUTRAGE AFTER SNEAKILY ENDING YOUNGKIN-ERA WOMEN'S SPORTS PROTECTIONS "The order specifically says that they've reviewed [each] case individually, right?" He noted that Virginia has online voter registration and questioned whether an unscrupulous relative who received one of the notifications might try to register their dead relative to vote . "These dead people clearly aren't petitioning the governor to get their civil liberties back... they're restoring every single felon's civil disabilities without anybody even asking. And that's concerning, especially when they're dead." Virginia resident Howard "Skip" Lambert posted a July 1 restoration notice signed by Spanberger and an Aug. 31 notification from her administration addr…