Day 77: Virginia Passes Voting Rights Law

The House and Senate in Virginia approved changes to the state’s voting rights laws today, making Old Dominion the “first state in the nation to enact its own version of the voting rights act,” according to a statement from the Governor’s office.

The legislation prohibits last-minute changes to polling places and other actions that “dilute” minority participation, requires prepaid postage and drop-off locations for absentee ballots and allows absentee voters to fix mistakes on their ballot envelopes.

It also provides access for people with language barriers, requiring local election officials to distribute multilingual materials, as needed, and empowers individuals and the Attorney General to sue in cases of voter suppression. Any civil penalties awarded in those cases shall be recycled into a newly established Voter Education and Outreach Fund.

Senator Jennifer McClellan (D-VA), sponsor of one of the Senate bills (1395) said the approval is a “huge victory for our democracy.”

“I am proud that our Commonwealth is leading the way, becoming the first state in the South to pass a Voting Rights Act. This law will help to safeguard every Virginian’s access to the ballot for generations to come,” she said.

The Voting Rights Act of Virginia is being likened to the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, designed to restore and protect provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act on the federal level. Aside from the recent and controversial Georgia voting legislation, several other states have restricted access to the ballot box after the United States Supreme Court struck down protections to last-minute voting changes in nine states with a history of racial discrimination, in 2013.

“At a time when voting rights are under attack across our country, Virginia is expanding access to the ballot box, not restricting it,” said Governor Ralph Northam (D-VA). “With the Voting Rights Act of Virginia, our Commonwealth is creating a model for how states can provide comprehensive voter protections that strengthen democracy and the integrity of our elections. I am proud to support this historic legislation, and I urge Congress to follow Virginia’s example.”

The London Company established Virginia as the first English colony in the “New World” in 1607, taking advantage of slave labour and the displacement of Indigenous tribes, including the Powhatan — famed for their daughter Pocahontas, who married one of the founding settlers, John Smith. It became a state June 25, 1788, some five years after the American Revolutionary War ended.

Northam is a supporter of DC Statehood, tweeting in 2020, “#DCStatehood now, because all Americans—and especially our next-door neighbors—deserve equal representation.”

Representative Park Cannon (D-GA), who was arrested in an attempt to witness the signing of her home state’s voting legislation, will no longer be charged, prosecutors announced today. “While some of Representative Cannon’s colleagues and the police officers involved may have found her behavior annoying, such sentiment does not justify a presentment to a grand jury of the allegations in the arrest warrants or any other felony charges,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said via statement.

John Lewis, a revered Civil Rights leader and Democratic congressional representative from Georgia died in July 2020.