Virginians: Don’t Let the Commonwealth Stop Your Vote
Voter Protections Newsletter Volume 3 Issue 1
August 20, 2008
In 2005, Advancement Project embarked on a major effort to get then-Virginia Governor Mark Warner to issue an executive order to restore voting rights to people with felony convictions.
Part of the strategy was to flood Warner’s office with applications for restoration from those with felony convictions so that Warner would see the process was excessively burdensome and, really, unnecessary.
Advancement Project’s campaign involved getting those with felony convictions to realize that they could, indeed, get their voting rights restored because many believed the bar to voting was permanent for anyone who’d been convicted of a felony.
Advancement Project embarked on a major outreach effort which involved working with grassroots partners to set up workshops at community centers, churches and community colleges to reach out to those with felony convictions about applying to have their voting rights reinstated.
Through ads on billboards and buses--and with posters and flyers that were distributed in barbershops and beauty salons--Advancement Project made it known that even if you had a felony conviction, you could get your rights restored. We listed a toll free number, where anyone with a felony conviction could learn how to navigate the restoration process. The process along with the community outreach of our partner organizations resulted in a ten-fold increase in the volume of applications the governor typically received.
This year, Gov. Tim Kaine announced he would expedite the application review process for those with non-violent felony convictions so they could vote in the November election -- as long as they filed a complete application by Aug. 1. Often, the process of getting one’s voting rights restored can take about a year.
In July, Advancement Project decided to reach out to those with felony convictions to tell them about Kaine’s promise.
Advancement Project’s communications effort included running public service announcements on 100 radio stations throughout Virginia that reached hundreds of thousands of listeners.
It also involved notifying those with felony convictions through op-eds that ran in a number of papers, including The Washington Post, Virginian-Pilot, The Richmond Times-Dispatch and The Roanoke Times.
Through the op-eds, Advancement Project spread the word that those with felony convictions could participate in November--if they filed a complete application by Aug 1. Responding to these ads and op-eds, many persons with felony convictions contacted our office and requested and received assistance in completing their applications in a timely and effective manner.
Advancement Project also informed the public about the unfairness of disenfranchising people who have completed their sentences and paid their debt to society, stressing the need for change.
We informed the public that Virginia’s disenfranchisement laws, like other post-reconstruction era laws, were created with the explicit intent of weakening Black voting strength.
Virginia and Kentucky are the only two states that permanently take voting rights away from those convicted of felonies, unless there’s intervention by the governor.
For the recent effort, Advancement Project targeted media outlets that have high concentrations of People of Color and high numbers of people with felony convictions.
