About 200,000 convicted felons in Virginia will now have the right to vote in November

[mahatmakanejeeves]

There is more to this story than meets the eye. The restoration of voting rights to convicted felons enjoys bipartisan support. Yes, Bob McDonnell and Ken Cuccinelli supported restoring voting rights to convicted felons. Where they drew the line, though, was that they favored restoring voting rights to felons convicted of non-violent crimes.

About 200,000 convicted felons in Virginia will now have the right to vote in November

By [link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/people/sari-horwitz|Sari Horwitz] and Jenna Portnoy

April 22 at 11:00 AM

Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) will make all ex-felons in Virginia eligible to vote in the upcoming presidential election, part of a years-long effort to restore full voting rights to former convicts.

McAuliffe’s announcement in Richmond on Friday will allow an estimated 180,000 to 210,000 former felons who are not in prison or on probation or parole to register to vote this year in Virginia, a battleground state, according to a coalition of civil rights groups that had pushed for the restoration of voting rights.
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But McAuliffe’s April 22 proclamation will not automatically restore the voting rights of all felons going forward. In the future, the Virginia governor will review eligibility and restore voting rights to ex-offenders on an ongoing basis.
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In 2013, then-Gov. McDonnell, a former prosecutor, made sweeping changes to the process felons had to complete to regain their rights, which in Virginia includes the ability to vote, run for and hold public office and serve on juries. His administration waived the requirement that nonviolent offenders who had completed their sentences had to wait two years before applying, and streamlined the process with an online form and a toll-free information hotline.

McDonnell to expedite rights restoration process for non-violent felons in Virginia

By Errin Whack

May 29, 2013

Gov. Robert F. McDonnell said Wednesday that he is waiving the waiting period and automatically restoring the voting rights of non-violent felons who have completed their sentences and satisfied certain conditions.

The decision by McDonnell, a former prosecutor who has supported restoring voting rights, underscores a long-held position. McDonnell (R) has granted the right to vote to more ex-felons than any of his predecessors at a time when other Republican across the country have adopted more strict voting requirements, including photo IDs and shortened early voting periods.
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McDonnell’s announcement comes a day after a committee created by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) reported that the governor could do more to streamline the process. Cuccinelli, who is running to succeed McDonnell this year, formed the committee after legislation to create a constitutional amendment to automatically restore voting rights for non-violent felons failed again in the General Assembly.
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During McDonnell’s administration, more than 4,800 felons have been put back on the voting rolls during his administration. Cuccinelli came to support restoring voting rights for non-violent felons more recently, after repeatedly voting as a state senator against efforts to put a constitutional amendment addressing the issue on the ballot.

Cuccinelli U-turns on restoring voting rights to non-violent felons

By Sean Gorman on Monday, June 3rd, 2013 at 6:05 a.m.

For years, Virginia Democrats have been trying to make it easier for non-violent felons to regain their civil rights after they’ve paid their debts to society. But Democrats cried foul last week when Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican nominee for governor, endorsed the cause.
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... On Jan. 14, the attorney general testified in favor of a constitutional amendment for automatic voting restoration that was subsequently killed by a House subcommittee. ... On May 28, Cuccinelli called on Virginia to make it easier for non-violent felons to regain voting rights and released a report, put together by an advisory group he appointed, on ways to do that.
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Cuccinelli acknowledged, "When I was in the Senate, I wasn’t very supportive of the restoration of rights. I thought of it as a part of the punishment for being a felon." ... But the attorney general said he has grown increasingly concerned about what he called "felony creep" -- the trend of state politicians passing laws that elevate to felonies non-violent crimes that should remain as misdemeanors.

He questioned, for example, whether someone stealing $200 should be charged with a felony as mandated in Virginia. Brian Gottstein, spokesman for the attorney general, said while in the Senate, Cuccinelli voted for two unsuccessful bills that would have raised the dollar amount at which a theft becomes a felony.

[WhiteTara]

1. That's great!

Franchising voters!

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

2. K&R

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. Peter’s Take: Restoring Voting Rights For Virginia Ex-Felons

Peter’s Take: Restoring Voting Rights For Virginia Ex-Felons

by Peter Rousselot — April 28, 2016 at 12:15 pm

Discussion: Why enfranchising ex-felons is the right thing to do

Conservative columnist David Brooks has been among the most eloquent voices supporting the restoration of voting rights for ex-felons. In a 2010 column, Brooks summarized the case in favor of their enfranchisement:

There is no good reason to deny former prisoners the vote. Once they are back in the community — paying taxes, working, raising families — they have the same concerns as other voters, and they should have the same say in who represents them. Disenfranchisement laws also work against efforts to help released prisoners turn their lives around. Denying the vote to ex-offenders, who have paid their debt, continues to brand them as criminals, setting them apart from the society they should be rejoining.

Last Friday, Brooks re-affirmed his position when asked specifically about Governor McAuliffe’s action in Virginia: “One of the weird things in our whole criminal justice system is, we have got people who are 50, and 60, well past what they call criminal menopause, and they’re perfectly upstanding citizens, and they’re not the person they were at 19, and yet we continue to punish them.”

The historical context in which Virginia disenfranchised ex-felons

Virginia’s record as one of the “worst of the worst” in disenfranchising ex-felons is inextricably tied to its Confederate past. Virginia ex-felons are disproportionately black. As a 2015 article from the Weldon Cooper Center at the University of Virginia documents, Virginia’s record is long, sordid, and explicitly racist. In advising Governor McAuliffe about his April 22 executive order, researchers turned up a 1906 report:

that quoted Carter Glass, a Virginia state senator, as saying [disenfranchisement] would “eliminate the darkey as a political factor in this State in less than five years, so that in no single county of the Commonwealth will there be the least concern felt for the complete supremacy of the white race in the affairs of government.”

Legal Issues

A.E. Dick Howard, the legal scholar who is credited as the principal author of Virginia’s current constitution, advised Governor McAuliffe that he had the legal authority to act unilaterally via executive order. Action by the Virginia legislature was unnecessary. Other lawyers disagree, claiming that Governor McAuliffe’s executive order violates the Virginia constitution. Lawsuits and efforts at legislative repeal or amending Virginia’s constitution might happen.

Conclusion

For the last 150 years, first Democrats and now Republicans in the Virginia legislature have compiled a dismal record blocking the restoration of ex-felons’ voting rights. Based on Howard’s legal advice, Governor McAuliffe acted appropriately in by-passing the legislature.

Felons and the Right to Vote in Virginia: a Historical Overview