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

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 RedBear on Monday July 25 2016, @01:30AM

    by RedBear (1734) on Monday July 25 2016, @01:30AM (#379616)

    It's not reported in the summary that McAuliffe has already begun individually restoring voting rights to those on the list [washingtontimes.com], 13,000 to start with and he pledges to do the same for all 200,000 disenfranchised voters. All of them. Individually. Because the ruling only keeps him from being able to do it en masse with a single executive order. I found that rather inspiring, him pledging to hand-sign 200,000 executive orders to give each individual their voting rights back. Is the motivation political? Sure, partly. But it's also the right thing to do. People should not have their constitutional rights stripped for life. If he really follows through on this I'll be impressed.

    --
    ¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
    ... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
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