Despite being one of the seven founding states of the Electronic Registration Information Center, Virginia’s top election official has announced that the commonwealth would be withdrawing from the bipartisan, multistate partnership originally founded in 2012.
The Virginia Department of Elections says it has “streamlined” the process of removing dead voters from the rolls by allowing local registrars to use obituaries to confirm deaths and creating a form meant to make it easier for family members to notify election offices after a death.
The Virginia Department of Elections disclosed last week that over a month ago it “inadvertently” shared the state's registered voter list, which contains personal identifying information, with an unnamed individual.
In a shift from Virginia’s last three governors, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration is requiring people with felony convictions to proactively apply to regain their voting rights upon release from prison and is not automatically restoring rights for any group of offenders.
September 20 is National Voter Registration Day. In an op-ed, Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, the president and executive director of NextGen America, highlights the growing importance of young voters.