Judicial Watch, a right-leaning government watchdog group, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Virginia Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe over his actions of restoring the voting rights of hundreds of thousands of felons in the state.
The lawsuit was submitted to the Circuit Court of Bedford County and claims that McAuliffe violated the Constitution when he issued an executive order on April 22 that restored the franchise of 206,000 felons who recently completed their prison sentences, paroles, and probations.
AP reports:
The lawsuit says McAuliffe violated the Virginia Constitution. The group filed the lawsuit on behalf of several registered Virginia voters, who say their "lawful votes" will be cancelled out by those cast by felons.
It's the second legal challenge McAuliffe faces over his April executive order. The Virginia Supreme Court is expected in July to hear arguments in a similar lawsuit filed by Republican lawmakers.
McAuliffe has said he is confident his executive order will withstand legal challenges.
At the time McAuliffe issued the executive orders, Republicans in Virginia said that the governor did so out of "political opportunism" in hopes of helping presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in the November elections.
"The singular purpose of Terry McAuliffe’s governorship is to elect Hillary Clinton," Virginia Speaker of the House William J. Howell said after the executive order was announced.
An investigation conducted by the Washington Post found that McAuliffe’s executive order restored the voting rights of ineligible felons, some of which were still in prison or on probation. The state claims they have since corrected the errors uncovered in the investigation.