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> I'm trying to determine if this really occurred, but there is a report of Terry McAuliffe pardoning 60,000 felons in Virginia for votes. It saddens me that a

> I'm trying to determine if this really occurred, but there is a report of Terry McAuliffe pardoning 60,000 felons in Virginia for votes. It saddens me that a media source twisted McAuliffe's restoring of voting rights into "pardoned 60,000 felons in Virginia for votes". Also it was 13,000 ... not 60,000.

pcunite 10y ago
I thought it was 200,000, now they say 60,000. So, do you have a source for 13k?
- invid_regent 10y ago
  I'm going to get some minor details wrong, but bear with me: * Virginia is 1 of 4 states who's state constitution takes away the right of felons to vote. I'm going to be a bad person and just assume this was part of Jim Crow era laws to make sure less African Americans could vote, but I have not researched the subject. * Before 2013, if you committed a non violent felony in Virginia and had fulfilled all parts of your sentence, including serving time and probation and fines and restitution, two years later you could apply for a certificate giving you the right to register to vote. * In 2013, Virginia governor McDonnell issued an executive order that got rid of the two year waiting period. I've read this affected about 100,000 potential voters. * In 2016, Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe issued an executive order that made the restoration of the ability to register to vote automatic, no certificate needed. His order covered violent and non violent felons. It didn't change the fact that the governor could just individually restore the ability to register to vote to someone who had completed their sentence. It just made it easy and automatic. * Due to some screwup somewhere his order somehow restored the voting rights for several child molestors still in prison, and a few serial killers who had serial killed in Virginia but were serving a sentence in a different state. I guess. I'm not sure how that worked. I can't imagine a child molestor in prison trying to register to vote. * The Virginia state supreme court overturned the governor's order. * In Aug 2016, McAuliffe vowed to individually restore the rights of each individual ex-felon by hand, but by using an automatic signing machine. He claimed he had signed 13,000 so far, and said he could conceivably cover 200,000 more people. There are some voter advocacy groups who think you should have the right to register to vote after you've completed your sentence, regardless of fines imposed on you by the state. I took some of the above info from the Washington Post ( NOT THE WASHINGTON TIMES ) https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/mcauliffe-restores-voting-rights-to-13000-felons/2016/08/22/2372bb72-6878-11e6-99bf-f0cf3a6449a6_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/mcaul...
  - pcunite 10y ago
    Excellent explanation! Thank you.

pcunite 10y ago

I thought it was 200,000, now they say 60,000. So, do you have a source for 13k?

invid_regent 10y ago
I'm going to get some minor details wrong, but bear with me: * Virginia is 1 of 4 states who's state constitution takes away the right of felons to vote. I'm going to be a bad person and just assume this was part of Jim Crow era laws to make sure less African Americans could vote, but I have not researched the subject. * Before 2013, if you committed a non violent felony in Virginia and had fulfilled all parts of your sentence, including serving time and probation and fines and restitution, two years later you could apply for a certificate giving you the right to register to vote. * In 2013, Virginia governor McDonnell issued an executive order that got rid of the two year waiting period. I've read this affected about 100,000 potential voters. * In 2016, Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe issued an executive order that made the restoration of the ability to register to vote automatic, no certificate needed. His order covered violent and non violent felons. It didn't change the fact that the governor could just individually restore the ability to register to vote to someone who had completed their sentence. It just made it easy and automatic. * Due to some screwup somewhere his order somehow restored the voting rights for several child molestors still in prison, and a few serial killers who had serial killed in Virginia but were serving a sentence in a different state. I guess. I'm not sure how that worked. I can't imagine a child molestor in prison trying to register to vote. * The Virginia state supreme court overturned the governor's order. * In Aug 2016, McAuliffe vowed to individually restore the rights of each individual ex-felon by hand, but by using an automatic signing machine. He claimed he had signed 13,000 so far, and said he could conceivably cover 200,000 more people. There are some voter advocacy groups who think you should have the right to register to vote after you've completed your sentence, regardless of fines imposed on you by the state. I took some of the above info from the Washington Post ( NOT THE WASHINGTON TIMES ) https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/mcauliffe-restores-voting-rights-to-13000-felons/2016/08/22/2372bb72-6878-11e6-99bf-f0cf3a6449a6_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/mcaul...
- pcunite 10y ago
  Excellent explanation! Thank you.