Over the weekend, it was announced that Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who is also one of Clinton’s many pals, has restored the voting rights for 13,000 convicted felons. Thanks to the power of the autopen, the governor also plans to fulfill his pledge of restoring voting rights to the original bloc of 200,000 felons, which was torpedoed by the state Supreme Court. The Virginia GOP filed a lawsuit stating that the governor had overreached with this blanket pardon; the court agreed. Nevertheless, the governor, undaunted, said he would grant individual clemency notices in an effort to ensure that the lion’s share of the 200,000 vote Democratic this year. As Leah noted, convicted felon voter behavior trends heavily Democratic, which explains why Democrats want these folks to be allowed to enter the polls come Election Day. Laura Vozella of The Washington Post had more from Richmond:
On Monday, at a civil rights memorial on Capitol Square, McAuliffe announced that he had restored voting rights to the 13,000 felons, making them free to register once again. He also laid out plans for restoring rights to the remainder of the 200,000.“Restoring the rights of Virginians who have served their time and live, work and pay taxes in our communities is one of the pressing civil rights issues of our day,” McAuliffe said in a statement. “I have met these men and women and know how sincerely they want to contribute to our society as full citizens again.”
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