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Over 450,000 Virginians are unable to vote because of the Commonwealth’s felon disenfranchisement law. Many of these Virginians are disenfranchised because of a drug felony conviction.
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Today Governor Terry McAuliffe announced his amendments to the Commonwealth of Virginia’s process by which rehabilitated felons can have their voting rights restored after they have paid their debt to society.
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The 2014 session of the Virginia General Assembly left the ACLU of Virginia and its 10,000 members and supporters with little reason to cheer and significant reason to worry about the state of civil liberties in the Commonwealth when the General Assembly adjourns sine die. “
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For the last several months, the House Judiciary Committee has conducted an ongoing review of our nation’s intelligence-gathering programs. Last summer’s unauthorized public release of these classified programs by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has sparked a national debate about the extent of the programs and whether they pose a threat to Americans’ civil liberties and privacy.
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Gov. Bob McDonnell will recommend substantial new state investments in the areas of prisoner re-entry and restoration of rights when he puts forward his two-year spending plan for the Commonwealth next Monday. The governor has put a focus on the two policy areas over the last four years, establishing Virginia’s first-ever prisoner re-entry statewide plan.
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We commend Gov. McDonnell for loosening the Commonwealth’s grip on its felony disenfranchisement law. But we need to do more. We hope that Gov.-elect Terry McAuliffe will build on that progress by establishing a truly automatic restoration process for all Virginia citizens who have lost those voting rights due to a felony conviction.
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The ACLU of Virginia, along with a coalition of civil rights organizations, submitted letters to the candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general asking that they commit to ending disenfranchisement in Virginia.
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Virginia Organizing Chairperson Sandra A. Cook offered praise for Gov. Bob McDonnell after the governor’s office announced today a set of procedures for the new, more automated process of restoration of civil rights for former nonviolent felons. “For 15 years Virginia Organizing has been working in the state to make sure those people who have…
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Gov. Bob McDonnell today announced the procedures for automatically restoring, on an individualized basis, civil rights to non-violent felons. The process was established with the help of multiple recommendations by stakeholder groups and affected agencies.
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The Supreme Court had an historic week recently with major decisions on gay marriage, immigration and voting. I am particularly concerned about the decision that I believe does major damage to the Voting Rights Act.
