The racial aspect of this is perhaps the most concerning. In my home state of Virginia we have one of the worst problems with this and somewhere around 20% of b

The racial aspect of this is perhaps the most concerning. In my home state of Virginia we have one of the worst problems with this and somewhere around 20% of black individuals cannot vote. (http://www.naacp.org/page/-/advocacy%20papers/Silenced%20in%20VA-%20Citizens%20Without%20a%20Vote.pdf http://www.naacp.org/page/-/advocacy%20papers/Silenced%20in%...) while more than 7% of all individuals cannot vote. It amounts to a modern day 3/5ths clause and the worst part of it is that it's part of our constitution. Only the Governor himself can restore voting rights to an individual after they have been lost and while recent persons to hold office have been in favor of amending this part of the constitution, it's not a trivial process and in the mean time you have to get the felons themselves to apply to have their rights restored.