The majority of the 13,000 Virginia felons whose voting rights were restored by Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D.) last week live in overwhelmingly Democratic areas, the Associated Press reported Monday. The governor said he was complying with the court ruling by restoring rights on an individual basis and promised to eventually restore rights to the almost 214,000 felons under a new process.
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Just a few months from the presidential election, General Assembly Republicans are continuing their legal battle against Gov. Terry McAuliffe over his efforts to restore voting rights for more than 200,000 felons. Republican lawmakers have denounced McAuliffe’s order, but don’t have enough votes to pass veto-proof legislation to undo it. Republicans say McAuliffe’s still not complying with the court order. McAuliffe’s executive order was seen as a possible aid in tipping Virginia, a swing state in the November 8 presidential election, in favor of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
In a statement, House of Delegates Speaker William J. Howell said the four justices who sided against McAuliffe are “widely respected” and elected with bipartisan support.
Stay on topic – This helps keep the thread focused on the discussion at hand.
WHSV has extensively covered the back-and-forth actions on McAuliffe’s granting of voting rights to thousand of Virginia felons, and you can find stories from throughout this whole ordeal in the “Related Stories” section of this article. His administration processed each felon’s paperwork individually to comply with the ruling, he said.
McAuliffe issued a statement today claiming the Republicans are trying to “intimidate and disenfranchise people”.
“We thought it would be impossible for Republicans to sink to a new low in their efforts to make it harder for certain Virginians to vote”.
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“Virginia Republicans should be ashamed of themselves for playing politics with Virginians’ right to participate in democracy”.
