RICHMOND, Va. One rainy night in 2009, Muhammad As-saddique Abdul-Rahman woke up in a graveyard.

Hed been released from prison seven years earlier, after nearly two decades behind bars for armed robbery, and had spent most of his freedom homeless, drinking and using drugs.

Waking up in that graveyard was the wakeup call he needed. He checked himself into a detox facility, joined Alcoholics Anonymous, got clean, and started working as a carpenter.

These days, Abdul-Rahman, 53, is a voter registration organizer. Pamphlets detailing ballot measures stick out of his left breast pocket, and he carries two clipboards in his hand. He wears a tie every day. Today, it falls over an orange and blue plaid short-sleeve shirt. A blue cap with white stars is on his head.

Since April, he has worked 12-hour to 16-hour days canvassing neighborhoods in Richmond, helping former felons navigate the confusing process of applying to restore their voting rights and then registering to vote.

As an ex-felon, myself, I couldnt vote and I didnt feel as a citizen I didnt feel whole, Abdul-Rahman told The Huffington Post. I was paying taxes. I had to follow laws, and I had no say in what these laws were.

In a few weeks, Abdul-Rahmans life will change again. On Nov. 8, hell be at his local polling station at 6 a.m. sharp. Hell vote for the first time in his life.

Abdul-Rahman and thousands of other ex-felons are at the center of a contentious battle in Virginia this election year. Virginia is one of only four states that ban former felons from voting. In April, Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) signed an executive order restoring voting rights to more than 200,000 state residents who had been disenfranchised because they were former felons.

The Virginia Supreme Court ruled three months later that while McAuliffe has the constitutional authority to restore the right to vote, he could not do so with a blanket executive order that applied to every ex-felon. The court also ordered that 13,000 former felons who had registered to vote after McAuliffes executive order be removed from voting rolls.

Exactly one month after that, on the steps of the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial at the state capitol in Richmond, McAuliffe pledged to restore the voting rights of every former felon individually. Hes signed more than 67,000 orders since.

Abdul-Rahman was there that day. It was magical, he said. It was magical, you know what I mean? I was so into it that I said, Give em hell Gov.

When he first learned of McAullifes executive order by word of mouth in April, Abdul-Rahman immediately registered to vote. With a new fire in him, he started canvassing on his own, imploring other ex-felons to register. Then he discovered he could get paid to do what he loved. In May, New Virginia Majority a progressive nonprofit that organizes communities of color, women, youth, LGBTQ people hired Abdul-Rahman to help mobilize ex-felons.

He continues to go to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings where he first heard about McAuliffes order and considers his service as an organizer part of his recovery. But after convincing hundreds of ex-felons to register following McAuliffes initial order in April, Abdul-Rahman had to start all over again.

To cut 13,000 off the voters rolls in one stroke thats un-American, thats un-democratic and that is wrong morally, intellectually and it was legally wrong, he said.

Abdul-Rahman redoubled his efforts to find people hed already registered, said Tram Nguyen, co-director of the New Virginia Majority.

There were a couple of challenges: One, overcoming the sort of the emotional toll of folks who didnt have their rights, and then they were given and taken away, Nguyen said. And two, convincing folks that they should continue to try to be engaged and their voice does matter.