The Virginia governor had sought to restore voting rights to more than 200,000 felons who had already served their time with an April executive order.
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Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe has restored voting rights to nearly 13,000 felons on a case-by-case basis after the state Supreme Court blocked his wider clemency effort, he said on Monday.
The order automatically restored voting rights to approximately 206,000 Virginia felons. “The people of full Virginia deserve a full explanation of the policy, specifically why he is restoring rights to habitual offenders, those who have not yet paid back their victims, and the Commonwealth’s worst sex offenders”.
Howell, R-Stafford, said in his own statement Monday that the General Assembly “will carefully review Governor McAuliffe’s process to determine if he followed the legal requirements”.
Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. “Tommy” Norment, R-James City, said in a statement following the governor’s announcement that he was “pleased Governor McAuliffe has complied with the decision of the Supreme Court of Virginia”. Past governors have scrutinized and granted the restoration of civil rights on a case-by-case basis.
The state was then ordered to cancel the registration of more than 11,000 felons who had signed up to vote since the order.
It was then challenged by state lawmakers and ultimately struck down by the Virginia Supreme Court.
Voting and jury rights are restored by the governor, not gun rights, which require a judge’s consent.
The new policy will also review all past offenders even if they have not petitioned the governor to have their rights restored, starting with offenders who have been out of the criminal justice system the longest.
“For transparency, we will release the names of individuals whose rights are restored on the 15th of each month”, McAuliffe said.
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