Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe signed an executive order to grant rights to felons for the first time in the state’s history since the Civil War.
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More than 200,000 convicted felons will be able to cast ballots in the swing state of Virginia in November’s election under a sweeping executive order by Democratic Gov. “Restoring voting rights to incarcerated individuals who have served their time is an imperative to a fair and just democracy while punitive measures only serve to further disenfranchise and isolate ex-offenders”.
Nationwide, almost 6 million Americans are barred from voting because of laws disenfranchising felons, according to the Washington-based Sentencing Project.
“I am stunned yet not at all surprised by the governor’s action”, Howell said in a statement.
“If even a fraction of the 200,000 felons whose voting rights were restored choose to vote in the election, it could reshuffle politics of the state and reshape the electoral college”, he said.
In a statement, John Whitbeck, Republican Party chairman in Virginia, said voting rights shouldn’t have been restored to people who “committed heinous acts of violence”.
Such policies disproportionately prevent African Americans from voting, the group says.
Since black Americans are more likely to go to prison, this had a disproportionate impact on the African-American electorate: While the overall disenfranchisement rate didn’t break 11 percent for any state, the black disenfranchisement rate topped 20 percent in Florida, Kentucky, and, notably, Virginia.
McAuliffe has worked to enfranchise felons since the beginning of his term, but has faced opposition from the Virginia General Assembly.
Governor McAuliffe’s order to restore voting rights is the largest of its kind in the USA, according to activists.
The year before, McAuliffe reduced the mandatory waiting period for those convicted of a violent felony to apply to vote again.
“The singular goal of Terry McAuliffe’s governorship is to elect Hillary Clinton president of the United States”, Virginia House Speaker William J Howell said. I’m not giving people their gun rights back and other things like that.
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Though the efforts haven’t necessarily curbed turnout by blacks – in fact, some states have seen higher turnout under such rules – critics, and some courts, have painted the efforts as latter-day poll taxes whose main thrust is to discourage Democratic voters. “They live, work and raise families in communities all across the commonwealth, and they will continue to contribute to our communities, but they now will do it with the full rights of citizens”.
