RICHMOND, Va. — The Virginia NAACP is taking Governor Glenn Youngkin to court to obtain public records on the criteria used to restore the voting rights of convicted felons.
The lawsuit will be heard on Tuesday in the Circuit Court of Richmond. The Virginia NAACP alleges it is illegal for Youngkin to withhold the records since a Virginia Freedom of Information Act (VFOIA) request was made in May.
The Virginia NAACP previously claimed Youngkin's process is "arbitrary" and potentially discriminatory. The organization said there were "key documents" missing from the nearly 600 documents it requested from the governor's office earlier in the year.
According to the Virginia NAACP, the documents unaccounted for contained information on the factors used to decide if an application is approved or rejected. Additionally, the governor's office allegedly failed to provide records of meetings and communications about the implementation of the restoration rights and the applications that were denied restoration.
A spokesperson for Youngkin previously told 13News Now in a statement that the governor's office spent months compiling documents per the NAACP's request.
Despite the documents submitted, the NAACP has claimed it is still unclear why some people who submitted applications had their voting rights denied.
In Virginia, a felony conviction automatically results in the loss of certain civil rights such as voting, serving on a jury, running for office, or carrying a firearm. The governor has the sole discretion to restore them, except for firearms rights, which only a court can do.
