A dead dog has been granted the right to vote in Virginia.
That is not a metaphor. According to Fox News Digital, a constituent in Goochland County received an official rights-restoration certificate from the office of Gov. Abigail Spanberger for his pet, a beagle-hound mix named Biscuit — who died roughly five years ago. The case is now the subject of a formal call for an investigation by Del. Tom Garrett, R-Buckingham, who says the document proves the governor's mass restoration of felon voting rights is being conducted without even the most basic level of review.
"This is not a question of whether people who have served their sentences deserve a second chance. This is a question of whether the Commonwealth is exercising one of the Governor's constitutional powers with even the most basic level of review," Garrett said, according to Fox News Digital. "Biscuit was a dog. Biscuit has been dead for five years. Yet an official document bearing the governor's signature says the executive reviewed the particulars of Biscuit's criminal case and determined her rights should be restored. Virginians deserve an explanation for how that is possible."
Biscuit's owner, who declined to be identified for fear of political backlash, confirmed the letter's authenticity to Fox News Digital. He told Garrett the dog was a "good dog and is greatly missed" and offered a deadpan denial of any criminal history. "To my knowledge, she was never convicted of a felony, nor did she ever show any interest in voting," the owner said. The owner added that Biscuit was never sent to the pound and had no other contact with Richmond that could have placed her on the voting rolls. A sibling of the owner is currently incarcerated, but the owner noted that connection is moot because Spanberger's stated effort involves only released former convicts.
The citation reportedly bears the signatures of the governor and Secretary of the Commonwealth Candi Mundon-King. Garrett pointed to a statement from the Spanberger administration in July saying Mundon-King would be "proactively identifying Virginians who had lost their rights, confirming that those individuals were eligible, and restoring their rights." Spanberger announced in August that the initial figure of 66,000 restorations had reached 100,000 individuals.
Biscuit is not the first embarrassment. Fox News Digital reported that a Virginia Beach attorney, Tim Anderson, obtained a citation addressed to "Betty No Last Name" through a public records request to the Chesapeake Sheriff's Office. The document, purportedly from Spanberger's office, reads: "Whereas, Betty No Last Name, by reason of conviction(s), suffers political disabilities... I'm thinking perhaps Abigail Spanberger's 'individualized review' is just imaginary."
The revelations land ahead of a Nov. 3 ballot measure that would make voting rights restoration automatic upon release from prison in Virginia. Supporters of automatic restoration argue the current system is arbitrary and subject to political whims. Republicans argue the Biscuit and Betty cases show what happens when a governor's office processes thousands of restorations without checking names against actual records.
Fox News Digital noted it reached out to Spanberger's office for comment. It is not yet known whether the office has responded or whether it disputes the authenticity of the Biscuit certificate. Garrett has called for an investigation into how the document was produced and signed.
Our Take
Read that again: a dead beagle got a certificate signed by the governor of Virginia restoring her rights to vote and serve on a jury. Not a living felon. Not a released prisoner. A dog who has been in the ground for five years. And she wasn't even the strangest name on the list — that honor belongs to "Betty No Last Name."
Spanberger's office wants Virginians to believe it is conducting an "individualized review" of each case. Biscuit's certificate says exactly that. Betty's certificate says exactly that. But no human being reviewing a file would sign off on a dog or a placeholder name. What this looks like is a conveyor belt: names in, certificates out, signatures stamped, 100,000 of them, and nobody checking whether the name on the paper belongs to a person who is alive and eligible.
This is what happens when a governor treats a constitutional power like a voter registration drive. The framers gave the executive the power to restore rights case by case, with judgment, precisely so it would not become a mass production line. Spanberger turned it into one, and now a dead dog is on the rolls.
On Nov. 3, Virginians will vote on making this automatic. Ask yourself: if the current system can't tell a beagle from a felon, why would anyone trust the next one to get it right?
