Virginia Rising

By Mary C. Curtis, That was then, this is now. The reasoning behind the Supreme Court’s ruling this week striking down key parts of the Voting Rights Act uses considerably more words, but that simple phrase pretty much says it all. To accept that conclusion, though, one has to accept that America is as post-racial as some have insisted since …

By Jennie L. Ilustre, Do you want to influence law-making and policy-making on important Asian Pacific American issues? Then publicly tell your stories and “visit, call or write your legislators as a constituent–make noise,” advocates and aides to members of the US Congress in Virginia suggested at a recent discussion organized by the Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans of Virginia …

By Alison Burns, Calling Virginia’s ex-felons! Now that Gov. Bob McDonnell has expanded voting rights to non-violent offenders who have served their time, the challenge will be finding and registering them. Read more here.

Virginia New Majority has issued the following statement following the Democratic primary. “The selection of Ralph Northam for Lieutenant Governor and Mark Herring for Attorney General is certainly a welcome contrast to the Republican ticket. We believe that Northam and Herring will fight for policies that Virginians need, rather than politics voters don’t want,” said Tram Nguyen, Associate Director of …

The head of the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization issued the statement in response to Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell’s historic and unprecedented plan to streamline the voter rights restoration process for people with nonviolent felony convictions. In a news conference at Cedar Street Baptist Church of God in Richmond’s mostly black Church Hill community, the governor said nonviolent …

By Anthony Advincula, Darrell Gooden wanted to vote in the historic 2008 election, but he couldn’t because he was released from prison the year before and needed to wait two years before applying to reinstate his voting rights, under Virginia law. Read more here.

In a major victory for voting rights, Virginia’s Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell has announced he will automatically restore voting rights for people with nonviolent felony convictions. Read more here.

By Brentin Mock, Yesterday, a task force commissioned by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli found no legal basis for either the governor or the general assembly to automatically restore the voting rights of former convicted felons, but the governor found a way to do it anyway. This morning, Gov. Bob McDonnell announced that he would lift the permanent civil rights …

Governor Bob McDonnell announced Wednesday that he will create a process to automatically restore the rights of convicted felons. Read more here.

By Joe St. George, In a historic move Tuesday, Governor Bob McDonnell vowed to speed up the restoration of voting rights in Virginia by offering automatic restoration to non-violent felons. Read more here.