Terry McAuliffe tried this same playbook in 2016 – and the Virginia Supreme Court shut him down.
Now Abigail Spanberger just did it again, three months before the midterms.
And what she just handed these 66,000 people will tell you everything about what Democrats think of your vote.
The Playbook Democrats Keep Running
In 2016, Democrat Governor Terry McAuliffe tried to restore voting rights to 206,000 felons in one sweeping executive order.
The Virginia Supreme Court struck him down – ruling that governors cannot issue blanket restoration orders without reviewing each case individually.
McAuliffe responded by signing individual orders in batches every month until he left office.
https://twitter.com/GovernorVA/status/2083582478627880978?s=20
By the end of his term, he had restored rights to 173,166 Virginians – nearly five times more than all 19 governors before him combined.
Democrat Gov. Ralph Northam kept the conveyor belt running after McAuliffe left.
Then Republican Glenn Youngkin took office and reviewed each case individually, as the court had required – and restored fewer than 10,000 rights over his entire term.
Spanberger walked in the door in January and immediately restarted the machine.
In seven months, she's already handed out 66,085 restorations – and the midterms are three months away.
The Numbers Democrats Don't Want You to See
The felonies covered under Virginia's disenfranchisement law include murder, ra*e, robbery, burglary, and assault – the crimes that put you in prison, not just on probation.
Those are your neighbors who hurt someone.
Research consistently shows that felons who vote skew heavily Democrat – some estimates as high as 70 percent.
That makes this a targeted voter registration drive with the governor's seal on it.
And Spanberger isn't stopping at felons.
Judicial Watch just uncovered that Virginia entered a legal settlement with leftist activist groups to pause the removal of noncitizen voters from the rolls during the 90-day window before federal elections.
Virginia had already removed 6,531 declared noncitizens from its voter rolls between June 2024 and June 2026 – voters who openly told the state they were not citizens.
Those are the ones who admitted it.
Now, under the settlement Spanberger's administration agreed to, Virginia cannot systematically remove any more of them until after election day.
Add it up: 66,085 felons added, 6,531 noncitizens protected from removal.
That's over 72,000 votes Spanberger's team just worked to put on the board before November.
This Is What Democrats Mean by "Saving Democracy"
Spanberger called permanent felon disenfranchisement a "shameful relic of our Jim Crow past."
Democrats always reach for the Jim Crow framing when they want to shut down debate – because if you oppose the policy, you're now defending racism.
https://twitter.com/1109Patricia/status/2083834365750984870?s=20
That's the move.
Virginia voters elected Youngkin, who slowed the process down.
Then they elected Spanberger, who immediately restarted it.
The Virginia constitution puts this entirely in the governor's hands – no legislature needed, no public vote required – and one election determines whether your state adds 66,000 Democrat-leaning voters to the rolls.
This fall, Virginians will vote on a constitutional amendment that would make felon voting rights automatic upon release, permanently removing that power from any future governor.
Spanberger is asking Virginians to vote yes.
She just spent seven months showing them exactly what she'll do with executive power in the meantime.
Sources:
- "Spanberger Restores Voting Rights to 66,000 Virginians," Breitbart, August 2, 2026.
- "Virginia Removes 6,531 Declared Noncitizen Registrations from Voter Rolls," Judicial Watch, July 31, 2026.
- "Virginia Tried to Pause Noncitizen Voter Removal Before Election," PJ Media, July 31, 2026.
- "Spanberger Order, RNC Lawsuit Highlight Divide Over Virginia Voter Roll Maintenance," Virginia Mercury, March 30, 2026.
- "Felony Disenfranchisement in Virginia," Wikipedia / Virginia Department of Elections, January 2026.