B4 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2 , 2022
BY LAURA VOZZELLArichmond — Republicans in
control of a state House subcom-
mittee voted Tuesday to kill two
proposed constitutional amend-
ments, one to lift a Jim Crow-era
ban on felon voting and the other
to repeal Virginia’s now-defunct
prohibition against same-sex mar-
riage.
The party-line votes mark the
end of the road for the measures,
which had bipartisan support in
both chambers of the General As-
sembly last year but never made it
to the full House for a floor vote
this time.
The six Republicans who killed
the proposals made no comments
ahead of the votes. One of the four
Democrats on the panel, Del.
Schuyler T. VanValkenburg (Hen-
rico), implored the subcommittee
to pass both measures. A high
school civics teacher, VanValken-
burg noted that Virginia first im-
posed its lifetime voting ban on
felons in the Jim Crow era.
“In 1902, when they put these
barriers to voting in the constitu-
tion with the intent of keeping
people from citizenship, Virginia
was the worst democracy in the
country,” he said. “We made Mis-
sissippi look like a hotbed of de-
mocracy. This is one of those last
pieces from that era.”
The ban on same-sex marriage
was a much more recent addition
to the constitution, with an
amendment passed in 2006. It de-
fined marriage as “only a union
between one man and one wom-
an.” That language remains, even
after t he U.S. Supreme C ourt l egal-
ized same-sex marriage in 2015
and struck down state laws ban-
ning it.
To change the state constitu-
tion, a proposed amendment must
win p assage in the General Assem-
bly two years in a row — with an
election in between — before go-
ing to a public vote in a general
election. The measures on felon
voting and same-sex marriage
passed both c hambers of the Dem-
ocratic-controlled legislature last
year with bipartisan support, but
prospects for their passage
dimmed after Republicans won
control of the House in November.
The governor has no role in the
amendment process — except as
an individual voter if one makes it
to the ballot. A spokeswoman for
Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who ran
as a tough-on-crime conservative,
did not respond to a request for
comment. Youngkin indicated to
the Associated Press in October
that he personally does not sup-
port same-sex marriage but ac-
knowledged that it was “legally
acceptable” and that as governor,
he would support the law.
The state constitution perma-
nently strips felons of their voting
rights, although they can petition
the governor for restoration. Re-
cent governors have t aken steps t o
make the restoration process easi-
er, starting with Republican Rob-ert F. McDonnell and accelerating
under Democrats Terry McAuliffe
and R alph N ortham, who restored
rights in record numbers.
The proposed amendment
would have made restoration of
felons’ rights automatic upon
completion of their sentences.
“Virginians who have served
their time and paid their debt to
society s hould not have to petition
to be full citizens of the Common-
wealth,” McAuliffe, who in No-
vember lost to Youngkin, tweeted
after the vote. “Today’s vote to
deny a referendum on automatic
restoration of rights is deeply
troubling.”
Supporters of the voting rights
measure took it as a good sign this
year that a Republican, Del. Mike
Cherry (Colonial Heights), spon-
sored the House version of that
measure. But the GOP-led House
privileges and elections subcom-
mittee shot that down a month
ago, along with the House version
of the marriage amendment.
So there was little doubt about
the outcome Tuesday, as the same
panel took up identical measures.
Sen. Mamie E. Locke (D-Hamp-
ton) made a halfhearted pitch for
her voting rights legislation.
“You know what this amend-
ment does,” she said. “That’s all
I’ve got to say.”
A handful of supporters — in-
cluding individual ex-felons and
officials with the American Civil
Liberties Union and the Virginia
Catholic Conference — spoke
briefly in favor.
“We think it’s an important
matter of justice for those who
have finished their sentences,”said Jeff Caruso, executive direc-
tor o f the Virginia C atholic C onfer-
ence.
No o ne from the p ublic or on the
panel spoke against the legisla-
tion. But as the subcommittee
promptly shot it down without
comment, Locke muttered, “What
a surprise.”
The committee next did the
same to the marriage measure,
brought by Sen. Adam P. Ebbin
(D-Alexandria), who in 2003 be-
came the first openly gay person
elected to the G eneral Assembly.
“We’ve evolved since 2006 ,
when we stained our constitution
with the so-called marriage
amendment,” Ebbin said. “A nd we
give this committee a chance to
evolve since you made a mistake a
few weeks ago.”
Ebbin said the amendment
would provide “a fundamental
dignity and equality t o our f riends,
family and neighbors — and to
me.”
Narissa Rahaman, e xecutive di-
rector of Equality Virginia, de-
scribed a same-sex couple who
had built a life of “hopes and
dreams and happiness and love.”
Supporters “want to see our
constitution reflect the hopes and
dreams for everyone who deserve
the right to be married,” she said.
“Marriage e quality i s the law of the
land. What I’m asking you here
today is to leave that decision to
the Virginia voters.”
Opposition was muted com-
pared with a month ago, when
conservatives warned that the
amendment could open the door
to polygamy, i ntrafamily marriage
and child marriage.VIRGINIA
Felon voting rights, same-sex marriage bills die
be seen as condoning civilian
oversight boards.”
The Arlington County Demo-
cratic Committee accused Young-
kin of stoking partisan divisions,
writing on Twitter: “There is no
reason to play politics with a
common-sense measure that
passed the GOP controlled
House.”
Because Virginia follows the
19th-century policy known as the
Dillon Rule, localities must seek
special permission from the Gen-
eral Assembly for any powers
that are not explicitly afforded to
them.
Arlington is unique among
Virginia counties in that it relies
on a county manager form of
government, with no county ex-
ecutive and a county bureaucracy
that almost entirely reports to
the county manager. Under its
charter, the board must receive
explicit permission from the state
to hire anyone directly.
Hope said the legislation was a
question of local control, not of
policing oversight. His bill would
have been nearly identical, he
said, if the county lawmakers had
wanted to hire their own librari-
an.
“Even though this was a posi-
tion for a civilian oversight
board, it wasn’t about the civilian
oversight board,” Hope said. “It
was just a function of Arlington
needing this express approval to
hire for this position.”
Cristol, the board chair, said
the veto was an unfortunate cap
to more than a year of local
discussions on a model that had
been conscientiously designed.
“This community worked so
hard and put so much care into
this,” she said, “and the governor
destabilized one of the most im-
portant parts of it with very little
care or attention.”Rachel Weiner in Washington
contributed to this report.powers should rest with the
board and the auditor.
The board ultimately settled
on a model on par with other
oversight bodies in Northern Vir-
ginia: The panel, which is being
set up, will include seven county
residents as well as two nonvot-
ing members with law enforce-
ment experience. Oversight pan-
el members will be able to re-
quest subpoenas of police and
encourage the auditor to launch
investigations of individual offi-
cers.
In his explanation for the veto,
Youngkin appeared to criticize a
lack of set qualifications for the
“politically-appointed” auditor
role, in addition to the fact that
no current law enforcement offi-
cials would have voting power on
the oversight panel. He also
claimed that the auditor could be
given the ability to discipline and
fire officers, making them “judge,
jury and executioner.”
But Del. Patrick A. Hope (D-
Arlington), who sponsored the
bill, said the auditor has no such
disciplinary powers. Youngkin’s
explanation, he said, made him
question whether the governor
was offering his input on the
intended effects of the bill or the
merits of civilian oversight of
police more generally.
“That’s what’s so puzzling, that
you would choose this bill to
veto,” he said. “It’s not about local
government. It’s not about gov-
erning. It’s about a national pro-
file and the fact that this wouldVETO FROM B1Youngkin blocks part ofpolice accountability planBY MICHAEL BRICE-SADDLERThe D.C. Council on Tuesday
unanimously approved a meas-
ure that aims to regulate govern-
ment employees’ use of Whats-
App and similar messaging ser-
vices that have options to auto-
matically delete records of
conversations, following reports
about members of Mayor Muriel
E. Bowser’s administration using
the app for government business.
The emergency measure, in-
troduced by D.C. Council Chair-
man Phil Mendelson (D), seeks to
ensure government communica-
tions sent using apps such as
WhatsApp — including those
that have an auto-delete feature
for messages — are subject to
Freedom of Information Act laws
and are preserved in the public
record.
Mendelson said the bill was
spurred by a report from Axios
D.C. last month that f ound that
WhatsApp is “widely” used
among D.C. government employ-
ees for government communica-
tions. Government ethics advo-
cates told the outlet that they
caution against using WhatsApp
and similar apps “unless safe-
guards are in place to retain
communications for FOIA re-
quests.”
“A fter learning of the use of
encrypted messaging apps, by
members of the Executive
Branch, it is an urgent matter
that we boost transparency in
District Government,” Mendel-
son said in a statement introduc-
ing the legislation. “I get it that
many in government would liketo conduct their business in pri-
vate. But that is contrary to
long-standing policy. We value
open government. We don’t value
auto-delete.”
In a letter to the council ahead
of the vote, Bowser (D) said she
supported efforts to ensure gov-
ernment records are maintained
but noted that the underlying lawin question does not appear to
apply to the council, which she
said was hypocritical. She added
that her administration has “had
little time to research how to
implement this emergency.”
“I am sure you would agree
that it would be the height of
hypocrisy to update record reten-
tion storage requirements for the
executive side of the government,
while shielding the Council’s
communications from public
view,” Bowser wrote. She called
on Mendelson t o extend the legis-
lation’s applicability to the coun-
cil.
But Mendelson on Tuesday
referenced rules the council al-
ready h as in place that govern the
use of electronic communica-
tions. The rules prohibit messag-
es “designed to disappear after a
certain time period,” unless cer-
tain steps are taken to ensure
they’re preserved in council rec-
ords.
In December, The Washington
Post reported that Maryland Gov.
Larry Hogan (R) has long used
electronic chat rooms that de-
stroy messages in 24 hours to
communicate with state employ-
ees, which experts said violated
the spirit of open-records laws.
A spokesperson for Bowser didnot respond to a request for
comment Tuesday about the leg-
islation and the administration’s
use of WhatsApp, including
whether staff are allowed to use
the auto-delete feature.
The council, which conducted
a hybrid legislative meeting Tues-
day as the body shifts to more
in-person operations, also took
the first of two votes on a bill
Bowser proposed last year that,
among other changes, would ex-
tend the popular street dining
program, known as “streateries,”
until December 2023 and allow
public drinking in more parts of
the city, in hopes of bolstering a
hospitality industry that was hit
hard by the coronavirus pandem-
ic.
The bill would create a com-
mercial lifestyle-center license
that would allow patrons to buy
drinks from restaurants and
walk around with them in desig-
nated areas. It also aims to bring
more grocery stores to Wards 7
and 8 by allowing grocers there
to sell beer, wine or liquor for up
to a quarter of their total sales, so
long as they operate in those
wards for at least six months
before expanding elsewhere in
the city.
Among other measures thecouncil approved Tuesday was an
emergency bill to allow teachers
and staff of the D.C. Public
Schools t o serve on the D.C. State
Board of Education; under cur-
rent law, public school staff are
prohibited from serving on the
board even though staff at the
city’s charter schools can. Coun-
cil members Janeese Lewis
George (D-Ward 4) and Charles
Allen (D-Ward 6) said the change
will level the playing field in time
for the upcoming election.
The legislative body also took
the second vote on a bill that
would give D.C. Superior Court
the ability to seal eviction records
in certain circumstances, such as
when a landlord withdraws the
claim o r after a three-year period.
The measure was approved
unanimously.
“The pandemic has been quite
terrible in so many respects, but
on the other hand, it gives us the
occasion to make some improve-
ments in some areas,” said coun-
cil member Mary M. Cheh (D-
Ward 3), who introduced the
measure. “One of them is housing
evictions. I’m grateful we had a
chance to focus on this and
protect people.”
The bill now heads to Bowser’s
desk for her signature.THE DISTRICT
Council approves b ill targeting Bowser administration’s use of WhatsApp
CRAIG HUDSON FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) presides over a hybrid
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