This article, is absolutely fascinating. In it, the author - Spencer Overton - writes:
I recently heard a rumor that a leading Virginia State Senator has objected to a proposal that Governor Mark Warner restore voting rights to 243,000 Americans in Virginia who have served their time. According to the rumor, the politician is an African-American Democrat.
Wow. Here are a few more interesting factoids from the article (bolding added for emphasis):
Virginia is one of four states that remove voting rights from all former offenders for life, even after they have served their probation or incarceration and parole (Kentucky, Alabama, and Florida are the others). This rule applies to everyone convicted of any felony, even those sentenced only to probation and never spend a day in prison. Virginia, the three other Southern states, and Armenia are the only democracies in the world that disenfranchise all citizens who have been convicted of a felony for life.Over half of those disenfranchised in Virginia are black. As a result, one of every six black adults in Virginia cannot vote due to a felony (including 25% of black men). Evidence shows that the rule was adopted in a segregated, Jim Crow Virginia to exclude blacks. According to a transcript of proceedings from the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1901-02, Carter Glass, a delegate to the Convention, stated that the plan that included felon disenfranchisement laws ?will eliminate the darkey as a political factor in this State in less than 5 years, so that in no single county? will there be the least concern felt for the complete supremacy of the white race in the affairs of government.? More information on the impact of disenfranchisement laws in Virginia is available in The Advancement Project report entitled "Access Denied: The Impact of Virginia's Felony Disenfranchisement Laws."
Disturbing. Meanwhile, according to today's edition of The Hotline (subscription only):
Warner seems personally inclined to relax Virginia's strict standards. In 2003, he streamlined the onerous procedures a felon was required to navigate. The state approves applications one-by-one, but one estimate by a pro-reform advocacy group credits Warner with restoring more felons' voting rights than any other governor of a state lacking blanket amnesty. VA remains one of the few states that doesn't automatically restore voting rights to felons who've served their term. And activists say VA's process is more difficult than it should be.Even Warner's admirers admit that he probably could do more. But they worry that an executive order restoring rights -- along the lines of what Vilsack did in IA -- would trigger a massive backlash against Democrats and make it harder for Dems to get liberal/progressive legislation through the legislature, full of tough-on-crime GOPers and Dems. VA may be tilting purple, but Warner's own tenure offers a lesson in the necessity of coalition-building. A full-scale restoration order might doom replacement Tim Kaine from the start. Also, Warner is said to favor a measured approach that restores voting rights after a felon has repaid debts to those he or she wronged.
Restoring the franchise to felons is not a small issue for much of the Dem base and for civil rights activists; a disproportionate percentage of felons are young and black and many are in prison for relatively minor drug offenses. The effect of depriving felons of their voting rights punishes young black men individually and as a group, according to these activists.
So what would you do if you were Gov. Warner? How would you weigh all these issues: crime, justice, politics, morality, racism...all wrapped up in one issue? I guess that's what they pay Mark Warner the big bucks for. Fascinating stuff.