Welcome to the return of our war on voting series, a joint project of Meteor Blades and Joan McCarter.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D-VA) is showing the consequences elections can have, and why it's so important not to lose focus on down-ballot races. Every election is critical, and his executive action to restore voting rights to 200,000 felons, demonstrates that.

The sweeping order, in a swing state that could play a role in deciding the November presidential election, will enable all felons who have served their prison time and finished parole to register to vote. Most are African-Americans, a core constituency of Democrats, Mr. McAuliffe's political party. "There's no question that we've had a horrible history in voting rights as relates to African-Americans—we should remedy it," Mr. McAuliffe said Thursday, previewing the announcement he will make on the steps of Virginia's Capitol, just yards from where President Abraham Lincoln once addressed freed slaves. "We should do it as soon as we possibly can." […] There is no way to know how many of the newly eligible voters in Virginia will register, but Mr. McAuliffe said he would encourage all to do so. "My message is going to be that I have now done my part," he said. […] Only two states—Maine and Vermont—have no voting restrictions on felons. Of the remaining 48, 12 states disenfranchise felons after they have completed probation or parole, said Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, a Washington policy organization that advocates restoring felons' voting rights.

It's an executive order, so subject to reversal by the next governor, should the next governor be a vote suppressor. This isn't the only great thing McAuliffe has done lately for voters—last week he vetoed a restrictive voter registration bill that would invalidate registrations that didn't have a box declaring the registrant was 18 or over checked. The form requires a date of birth, so the check box is superfluous.

Below, you'll find some briefs about what's happened this week in the war on voting.