Leah wrote abut how the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s executive order that would allow convicted felons to vote was unconstitutional. The action promoted legal action from the Virginia Republican Party. The court ruled that McAuliffe had overreached the state’s longstanding law concerning disenfranchisement of voting rights for criminals. Now, McAuliffe has decided to work around the court’s ruling by granting clemency to the 200,000 felons who were targeted in his original executive order (via Think Progress):
Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) is taking action to restore the voting rights of thousands of ex-offenders in the state after a court decision Friday put them in jeopardy. He’s getting around the Virginia Supreme Court’s ruling against him by signing 200,000 individual clemency grants to the state’s ex-offenders to ensure their right to vote in November.[…]
But just hours after the decision, McAuliffe vowed to push back by signing clemency grants for the state’s ex-offenders one by one.
“The struggle for civil rights has always been a long and difficult one, but the fight goes on,” he wrote. “I remain committed to moving past our Commonwealth’s history of injustice to embrace an honest process for restoring the rights of our citizens, and I believe history and the vast majority of Virginians are on our side.”
The governor is certainly trying to make sure Virginia goes to his pal, Hilary Clinton, come November, huh?