He painted his action as a civil justice issue to give blacks, who’ve supposedly been disenfranchised from the voting process because of past crimes, a fair voice during elections – but as the Richmond Times pointed, McAuliffe’s executive order came two days after the General Assembly broke from regular session, meaning, he could have taken the legislative route to bring about the reform.
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Jenny Flanagan, an official with Common Cause in Virginia, said the ruling “runs counter to the trend of ensuring the right to vote for all Americans”.
“Never before have any of the prior 71 Virginia Governors issued a clemency order of any kind – including pardons, reprieves, commutations, and restoration orders – to a class of unnamed felons without regard for the nature of the crimes or any other individual circumstances relevant to the request”, the decision reads. The governor had vowed to sign 206,000 individualized rights restoration orders if the court ruled against him, but the administration has struggled with data errors that may complicate any mass restoration for named individuals.
“To be sure, no Governor of this Commonwealth, until now, has even suggested that such a power exists”.
“As of 2010, the most recent year for which data are available, Virginia had one of the highest levels in the nation of people who could not vote because of felony convictions: 7.3 percent, according to the U.S. Sentencing Project, a nonprofit that advocates for sentencing reforms”.
As the Inquisitr separately reported, Gov. McAuliffe’s voting rights order also had the unintended effect of reinstating the voting rights of several violent criminals outside of Virginia or who were still under supervised probation in other states.
He also noted that most states allow felons who have completed their terms to vote – Iowa, Kentucky and Florida are the only other exceptions.
McAuliffe and supporters said they will not accept the defeat.
“As a returning citizen, I know firsthand what it means when you can’t vote because of your past”. “Why should we deny them the right to vote?”
McAuliffe insisted that his action was the “morally right thing to do”. Republican lawmakers swiftly sued, arguing that governors can not restore rights en masse but must consider each former offender’s case individually.
In a statement, McAuliffe vowed to sign almost 13,000 individual orders to restore voting rights to felons, a process that some voting rights experts say could be cumbersome and complicated.
“Republicans suspect the real motive for McAuliffe’s order is political”, Pam reported.
Republicans accused McAuliffe of trying to add more minorities to the voting rolls ahead of the November election to help his friend Hillary Clinton win the critical swing state of Virginia for the Democrats.
McAuliffe pitched the order as a necessary step to correct an unusually restrictive felon voting policy that had a disproportionate impact on African-Americans.
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Coy said Wednesday the governor’s office had just received the lawsuit and was reviewing it.
