RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A voter advocacy group says a court ruling giving the public access to Virginia’s voter-registration applications has national implications.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a lower court’s ruling that a federal law mandating openness of voter records trumps Virginia law restricting access to the information.

The nonprofit group Project Vote sued election officials after being denied access to the voter-registration applications of Norfolk State students who claimed they were prohibited from voting in the 2008 presidential election. Michael Slater of Project Vote says last week’s court ruling is too late to help the Norfolk State students, but it will help the group obtain records elsewhere.

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