Virginia’s Democrat Governor spent last summer boasting that she had restored voting rights to 66,000 convicted felons.
One of those certified reviews went to a beagle who has been dead for five years.
The letter the Governor signed doesn't just restore the dog’s voting rights – it makes a specific claim about its criminal record.
Spanberger Handed 66,000 Felons Voting Rights in Six Months With No Real Vetting
Virginia Democrat Governor Abigail Spanberger has made restoring felon voting rights one of her signature causes.
Her Republican predecessor, Glenn Youngkin, had slowed the restoration process and vetted each application individually.
Spanberger reversed that on day one and by July had restored voting rights to 66,085 convicted felons – more than 60,000 people in six months.
Every restoration order bore the governor's signature and one specific claim: that her office had reviewed the particulars of each individual case.
Biscuit the Dog Got Virginia Voting Rights. Spanberger Signed the Certificate Herself.
The official certificate bears the governor's seal, Abigail Spanberger's signature, and a statement that after reviewing "the particulars of the individual's case," the governor restored the voting and jury-service rights of Biscuit Rigsby.
Biscuit is a beagle-hound mix from Goochland County who died five years ago.
https://twitter.com/AssocAnderson/status/2116241113560285330
Virginia Delegate Tom Garrett – R-Buckingham – received the letter from the constituent who owned Biscuit and is now demanding a full investigation.
"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," Garrett said.
https://twitter.com/GarrettInExile/status/2116358010066948108
The owner confirmed to Fox News that Biscuit was never convicted of a felony – was never in a pound, never had any interaction with Richmond officials – and, to their knowledge, had "never shown any interest in voting."
Spanberger's office claims the certificate is "associated with a person" who has a real date of birth and Social Security number on file – an explanation that created a larger problem than the one it was meant to solve.
If Biscuit's name and address are attached to someone else's identity in the state's system, Virginia's office just admitted it restored voting rights without verifying that the name on the certificate matches the person who actually lives at that address – not a spreadsheet error, but the entire job failing.
Her office moved fast enough to impress a factory floor and still missed a dead beagle.
Dead Felons, Betty No Last Name, Now Biscuit: Abigail Spanberger Voter Fraud Concerns Keep Growing
Biscuit is not an isolated mistake – she is the third embarrassment in a month.
Fox News reported in early October that deceased Virginians were receiving official voting rights restoration letters, each bearing the governor's signature and a QR code giving recipients direct access to a mail-in ballot application.
Spanberger promised to investigate. Then a nonexistent felon identified only as "Betty No Last Name" received a restoration certificate, and Spanberger's office attributed that one to a spreadsheet error with the mail merge.
Now Biscuit.
Delegate Garrett calls the explanations "eerily similar" each time and is demanding an independent audit of the entire program before Tuesday's vote.
The pattern has a clear motive. Every one of those restorations was rushed out before a November 3 constitutional amendment that would make felon voting rights automatic upon release from prison – Spanberger was building the case the system worked, and the vetting collapsed under the pressure of producing the numbers.
Virginia Beach attorney Tim Anderson told Fox News it was "one or the other" – either the state is not vetting who receives restoration certificates, or the vetting is too weak to catch deceased recipients. Either answer is disqualifying for a governor who promised her office reviewed every case individually.
At least three of those cases – a dead woman, a fictional felon, and a dead beagle – show the governor never reviewed anything.
Spanberger wanted that amendment to strip future oversight from the process permanently. Instead, Biscuit Rigsby just became the face of her campaign.
Democrats have spent years calling election integrity concerns paranoid fantasies, but Virginia's governor just signed a letter bearing the state seal claiming her office personally reviewed the criminal record of a dog that has been in the ground since 2021.
The machine that produced 66,085 restoration orders cannot tell the difference between a convicted felon and a dead beagle.
Democrats want to bring that machine to every state in the country.
Sources:
- Charles Creitz, "Biscuit the Dog is Latest Dead Felon to Get Their Voting Rights Back from Spanberger, Confused Owner Says," Fox News, October 30, 2026.
- Charles Creitz, "Spanberger Voting-Rights Letters Sent to Dead Felons Amid Ballot Access Push," Fox News, October 5, 2026.
- Jeff Charles, "Dead Felons Can Now Vote in Virginia, Thanks to Gov. Spanberger," Townhall, October 6, 2026.
- Fred Lucas, "Virginia Restores Voting Rights to 66,000 Felons After Purging 6,500 Noncitizens From Voter Rolls," The Daily Signal, August 3, 2026.
- Bob Hoge, "Peak Virginia: Biscuit Just Had Her Voting Rights Restored, but There Are Some Problems With That," RedState, October 30, 2026.