Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) will restore voting rights to all ex-felons in the state, about 200,000 people, by executive action on April 22, according to The New York Times.
Activists and community organizers will begin working to register these people as soon as possible, as they hope their votes can influence the presidential election in November.
McAuliffe says he intends this executive action to restore rights to African Americans in particular. Nearly one in five African Americans is disenfranchised in Virginia, which is currently one of the harshest voting restriction states according to the Sentencing Project, a voting rights advocacy organization.
The New York Timesreports
“There’s no question that we’ve had a horrible history in voting rights as relates to African-Americans — we should remedy it,” Mr. McAuliffe said Thursday, previewing the announcement he will make on the steps of Virginia’s Capitol, just yards from where President Abraham Lincoln once addressed freed slaves. “We should do it as soon as we possibly can.”
The action, which Mr. McAuliffe said was justified under an expansive legal interpretation of his executive clemency authority, goes far beyond what other governors have done, experts say, and will almost certainly provoke a backlash from Virginia Republicans, who have resisted measures to expand felons’ voting rights. It has been planned in secrecy, and comes amid an intensifying national debate over race, mass incarceration and the criminal justice system.
There is no way to know how many of the newly eligible voters in Virginia will register, but Mr. McAuliffe said he would encourage all to do so. “My message is going to be that I have now done my part,” he said.
Read more at The New York Times.
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