George Hawkins Jr., who took former Gov. Glenn Youngkin to federal court over Virginia’s voting rights restoration process, is expected to register to vote Monday night at a NAACP Hampton forum on a recent federal ruling that restored voting eligibility to thousands of Virginians with past felony convictions.
The NAACP Hampton VA Voting Rights Forum begins at 6:30 p.m. tonight at Bethel AME Church, 2521 N. Armistead Avenue. Organizers say residents can learn whether they qualify, get help registering on site and put questions to advocates and election officials.
Hawkins’ own case did not succeed in court. He was released in May 2023 after serving a 13-year sentence, and Youngkin twice denied his application to have his voting rights restored. His lawsuit argued the governor’s discretionary system was unconstitutional. A federal judge in Richmond rejected the challenge, though he wrote that the governor’s unexplained decisions operated “much like a monarch.” The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that decision on Aug. 20, 2025, and the U.S. Supreme Court later declined to hear the case, leaving the appeals court ruling in place.
Relief came through a separate lawsuit. A federal judge found that the Virginia Constitution’s provision stripping voting rights from everyone with a felony conviction violated federal law. That case was brought by Protect Democracy, the ACLU of Virginia and WilmerHale.
Following the ruling, the Virginia Department of Elections sent mailers to 234,852 people notifying them they can register in time for the 2026 general election. The state has narrowed the convictions that cost a person the right to vote to three: murder, voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter.
The impact falls heavily on Black Virginians. The Sentencing Project estimated that about 260,000 Virginians were barred from voting due to felony convictions in 2024, a policy it said affected one in 10 Black voting-eligible Virginians.
Panelists scheduled for the forum include Rep. Bobby Scott; Zina McGee, endowed university professor of sociology at Hampton University; Newport News Sheriff Gabe Morgan, past president of the Virginia Sheriffs’ Association; Sheba Williams, founder and executive director of Nolef Turns Inc.; and BJ Estes, a community leader and entrepreneur who had his rights restored.
