Lawsuit challenges Youngkin’s limits on felon voting rights

By SARAH RANKIN and DENISE LAVOIE
Associated Press

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A newly filed lawsuit argues Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s “purely discretionary and arbitrary” process for restoring the voting rights of people with felony convictions should be declared unconstitutional. The suit was filed Thursday in federal court in Richmond. Youngkin’s administration confirmed quietly last month that it had shifted away from an at least partly automatic rights restoration system used by his predecessors. The lawsuit says the new process bases the right to vote “on the exercise of unfettered official discretion and arbitrary decision-making,” in violation of the First Amendment. A spokeswoman for Youngkin says the administration’s process is “constitutional and will be defended vigorously in court.”