For Jen Rhame, each sticker served as a gutting reminder of a civic duty left unfulfilled.
When Rhame was working her first job after completing her sentence for a felony, she watched as co-worker after co-worker came to the office on Election Day displaying the ubiquitous “I Voted” messages on their clothing.
It was a label she was legally barred from wearing at the time.
“I was asked by my co-workers who I was voting for, where my polling place was, you know, general office chatter on Election Day,” Rhame, the leader of Virginia Organizing’s Fredericksburg Chapter, recalled Friday night, during a Restoration of Rights Forum held at Fredericksburg Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.
“I already felt like an outsider, a human imposter. Then, on top of this, I was faced with having to lie about my political engagement unless I wanted to get into the details about why I was unable to vote.”
Rhame ultimately regained her rights in 2019 under the process that was in place under former Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration. She and several other panelists at Friday’s forum addressed how Virginia’s restoration of rights process has slowed to a crawl under Gov. Glenn Youngkin, as well as the legislative efforts underway to amend the state constitution.
In contrast to his predecessors, Youngkin in 2022 instituted a process by which individuals must apply to have their rights restored on an individual basis.
However, on Nov. 13, the House of Delegates Committee on Privileges and Elections voted 12-9 along party lines to advance HJ 2, a constitutional amendment that would automatically restore voting rights to felons upon completion of their sentences. It goes to the full House for a vote in January and must be passed in two General Assembly sessions — with an election in between — before appearing on the ballot in 2026.
‘A people issue’
When Del. Joshua Cole (D-Fredericksburg) was a student at Liberty University, he often marveled at the “Carter Glass Mansion” that sits in the middle of campus and served as the executive office of Dr. Jerry Falwell.
“We never knew who Carter Glass was, except what we were told on campus,” Cole said.
It wasn’t until Cole graduated that he discovered that, among other accomplishments, Glass was the architect of the 1902 Virginia constitution that included racist provisions such as a literacy test, poll tax and — more relevant to the present moment — a ban on voting with a felony conviction.
While the Voting Rights Act of 1965 abolished poll taxes and outlawed literacy tests, disenfranchisement remained legal.
“When we talk about the restoration of rights, this is not a question of morality,” said Cole, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments and voted in favor of HJ 2. “What we’re actually discussing is if we want to remove racism from the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
Duane Edwards, Vice Chairman of the Virginia Organizing Governing Board, referred to disenfranchisement as the period from 1902-2010, when former Gov. Bob McDonnell — a Republican — laid the groundwork for restoration of rights that was expanded by his successors.
“He gave us a process,” Edwards said of McDonnell.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, Virginia is one of just three states that permanently disenfranchises felons. Rhame noted that while Virginia legislators have split along party lines on the issue, other states have established a nonpartisan blueprint. That includes Iowa, where in 2020 Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds issued an executive order restoring the voting rights of felons who had completed their sentences.
Rhame also cited a 2024 study from the Marshall Project that found the political affiliations of incarcerated individuals were roughly evenly split, with 35 percent identifying as independents and 18 percent supporting the Democratic or Republican parties.
“Virginia, too, can make this a people issue instead of a partisan issue,” she said.
‘It can happen to anybody’
Only a few hands shot up when Juanita Shanks, the founder and CEO of Failsafe-ERA, asked how many in attendance had been impacted by incarceration. Then, she asked how many should or could have been incarcerated — prompting both laughter and a serious discussion about the far-reaching effects of felony convictions.
“Never say never,” said Shanks, who shared that a stable, two-parent home didn’t prevent her late son from becoming incarcerated. “As long as we have breath in our bodies and children or grandchildren, it can happen to anybody.”
Press the Issue
To volunteer or become an intern with FailSafe-ERA, fill out an application online.
At FailSafe-ERA, a nonprofit that provides re-entry support and services to returning citizens in the Fredericksburg area, returning to society after incarceration is a “journey,” Shanks said. And regaining the right to vote can serve as an important waypoint.
“The restoration of their rights makes them feel whole again,” Shanks said. “It makes them feel like they are returning citizens. They feel like they have a sense of belonging and not that of an outcast that you tend to see them as.”
For his part, Edwards recounted how an ordinary piece of paper felt like a ticket to rejoin society. He regained his rights in 2014, back when the process involved a 13-page handwritten application.
“I’m sitting there with this piece of paper, and it had the seal and the governor’s signature on it,” Edwards recalled. “And the feeling that came over me…
“I thought about the crime — but I thought about all the things I’ve done positive [sic] as far as changing myself, actually seeing myself in the community and seeing my part in the way my community was actually shaping up. And that was empowering for me, because I had never thought about that before.”
A vote of confidence
While Edwards and Rhame regained their rights, tens of thousands of Virginians remain disenfranchised.
“You witness an uncalculated number of individuals who are sitting at home right now, waiting,” Edwards said.
One of them was actually in the audience on Friday. Taj Mahon-Haft, who completed his felony sentence a year and a half ago, attended Friday’s forum wearing a gray T-shirt with the message: “All my homies hate prisons.”
Mahon-Haft, the Director of the Humanization Project, an organization that advocates for incarcerated persons and policy, said he has applied unsuccessfully to have his rights restored in the past two years.
“It’s really just a series of checkboxes,” Mahon-Haft said of the current online application. “You get a form letter. There’s no real process at this point.”
Mahon-Haft said he wasn’t surprised at the denial, noting that only about 6,500 felons have had their rights restored under Youngkin as opposed to nearly 170,000 under his predecessor, Northam. He’s far more optimistic about the potential constitutional amendment.
The amendment, which includes “a fundamental right to vote,” would remove governors from the equation entirely, codifying a process that, to this point, has evolved with the whims of each election cycle.
“We’re at the point where it’s time to do the same thing Virginia thought they needed to do around 1902,” Edwards said. “It’s time to rewrite the law.”
