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Virginia Court Overturns Order That Restored Voting Rights to Felons

posted by takyon on Sunday July 24 2016, @11:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the better-luck-next-cycle dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/07/22/487107922/virginia-court-overturns-order-that-restored-voting-rights-to-felons

McAuliffe had issued a sweeping executive order in April that affected 206,000 ex-offenders in the state.

In a 4-3 ruling, the state's justices said under the state constitution, McAuliffe didn't have the authority for such a proclamation.

[...] Nothing stops the governor from granting rights to felons on an individual basis, but the justices said it was unconstitutional to do it through a blanket order.

[...] Under McAuliffe's order, the restoration of rights only extended to felons who have finished serving their terms — anyone in prison, or on supervised probation or parole, was still barred from voting. The order also granted felons the right to serve on juries and become a notary.

[...] He also noted that most states allow felons who have completed their terms to vote — Iowa, Kentucky and Florida are the only other exceptions.

[...] "Republicans suspect the real motive for McAuliffe's order is political," [NPR's] Pam [Fessler] reported [earlier this month]. "The governor is a close ally of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who could benefit from more African-American voters if the race in Virginia is tight. McAuliffe denied that was his reason for issuing the order."

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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Monday July 25 2016, @12:39AM

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Monday July 25 2016, @12:39AM (#379593) Journal

    Governor Terry McAuliffe of Virginia, a Democrat, for starters.

    We don't have to wonder about Hillary's stance on this, because she tweeted it: https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/723585247443619840 [twitter.com]

    The 12 states in which the right to vote is stripped permanently are Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, Tennessee, Virginia and Wyoming. By my count, 9 of those are Republican controlled, 2 split, and 1 Democratic controlled (Delaware). The ball seems to be in the court of Reps, not Dems.

    Maine and Vermont actually allow prisoners to vote.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2016, @10:05PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2016, @10:05PM (#380069)

    Dems get more black votes, so it's better for them that criminals vote. For Reps it's the other way around.