VSC NAACP Strongly supports the passage of SJ248 and SJ247.

The League of Women Voters of Virginia supports SJ248. The League was formed from the fight for women's suffrage. We understand that democracy is the most representative when everyone has a voice. The voters we are advocating for have served their time and want to rejoin society. Most have jobs and pay taxes and may be a neighbor or someone you know. Voting is an important civic duty and an important way to participate in how communities are represented through those we elect and the laws that are passed. Everyone deserves a second chance and voters deserve the opportunity to voice their support, or opposition, at the ballot.

I ask you to support SJ248. The amendment provides that a person adjudicated by a court of competent jurisdiction as lacking the capacity to understand the act of voting shall not be entitled to vote during this period of incapacity until his capacity has been reestablished as prescribed by law. This wording is an improvement over current law. Currently, according to a JLARC study, twelve thousand Virginians have been deprived of the right to vote when a court appointed a guardian. Some of them indeed lack the capacity to understand the act of voting, but others, while needing a guardian, do understand voting and have political opinions and should be able to exercise this fundamental right.