Election integrity has become a key issue in Virginia, with conservative activists using next week’s election as a testing ground for a larger strategy to detect voter fraud in the 2024 election. The affected voters were people previously convicted of felonies who had their voting rights restored after completing their sentences, according to the state’s Department of Elections, and a software error misclassified probation violations as new felonies that would automatically strip the residents of their voting rights under Virginia law. Mr. Youngkin, who took office last year, had rescinded policies enacted by previous governors that automatically restored voting rights to residents who had completed felony sentences. Lyn McDermid, Virginia’s secretary of administration, said that the governor had asked the state’s inspector general to investigate the “causes and circumstances” of the purge of the voter rolls. The potential election impact is likely to be small among the more than six million Virginians registered to vote.

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Persons: Brennan, Youngkin, Lyn McDermid, Ragnar Organizations: state’s Department, Elections, Brennan Center for Justice, Virginians, Ragnar Research Partners Locations: Virginia