Here We Go Again In Virginia!

[cal04]

Cross posted from Blue Virginia
by lowkell
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/4/10/856026/-Here-We-Go-Again-In-Virginia!

Another day, another controversy for Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell (R-Confederacy).

For the second time in a week, Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell has angered black leaders and civil rights groups, this time when they learned of his plans to add another step for nonviolent felons to have their voting rights restored.

McDonnell (R) will require the offenders to submit an essay outlining their contributions to society since their release, turning a nearly automatic process into a subjective one that some say may prevent the poor and less-educated from being allowed to vote.

"It's another roadblock,'' Sen. Yvonne B. Miller (D-Norfolk), a member of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, said when she was told of the change.

Miller has repeatedly introduced unsuccessful bills to allow nonviolent offenders to have their rights restored automatically. "This is designed to suppress the rights of poor people," she said.



Virginia's McDonnell alters rights-restoration process for nonviolent felons
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/10/AR2010041001268.html

[rurallib]

1. this guy is the furture of the republiKlan party.

[abluelady]

5. Except, Luckily, Northerners Will Never Vote for Him.

I know Mass voted for Brown but he is a liberal compared to the most moderate Repug (and most Dems) down here. McDonnell is as far right as one can get, obviously.

[Judi Lynn]

2. This is clearly an attempt to block their living back in our society once they have paid their debt.

From your 2nd link:

Only Virginia and Kentucky require an act of the governor to restore voting rights to felons. The vast majority of states, including Maryland, automatically restore voting rights after a sentence is completed. The District allows felons to vote upon their release from prison.

In Virginia, under a system designed by then-Gov. Mark R. Warner (D), felons convicted of nonviolent crimes can apply to have their voting rights restored by filling out a one-page form with information about their arrest and conviction.

Bernard Henderson, who served as deputy secretary of the commonwealth under Warner and his successor, Timothy M. Kaine (D), said voting rights were restored to applicants who had clean records for three years after their sentences were completed. He said that restoration was not automatic but that rights were restored to about 95 percent of those who applied.

In the coming weeks, McDonnell will start requiring nonviolent offenders to write a letter to him explaining the circumstances of their arrest; their efforts to get a job, seek an education and participate in church and community activities; and why they believe their rights should be restored. Some applicants already have been notified that letters will be required.

Groups that work with felons to help restore their rights worry that applicants will be intimidated by the essay and will not bother to apply.

Thanks for the latest goddawful news about this nasty idiot. He does call out for complete scrutiny.

[monmouth]

3. Restoring rights is supposed to be such an easy process. Ask for

a petition to the governor, they sign it, you're good to go. You've done probation or whatever, paid all fines...This guy is awful.

[kimmerspixelated]

4. The guy's a prick!

[RandomThoughts]

6. I think felons who get out of jail should be able to vote.

but I would go as far as to say prisoners should be allowed to vote for whatever area they were living in when arrested. But that is just a philosophical view of it. Thinking about it, any society that has so many prisoners that they can effect a vote, is far more messed up then a system that lets prisoners vote.

On a side note. 1 out of every 100 adults in the USA are currently in prison.

[John Q. Citizen]

7. Miller is absolutely right.

[tom_paine]

8. Ah, the Ol' Confederacy up to it's ol' tricks.

Wanna know how it's gonna work?

White Man = Pass / Black Man = Fail

Or maybe, in keeping with current Bushiganda and it's emphasis on Plausible Deniability, White Democrats will also be failed, too, so the Neo-Rebs can plausibly claim it's not racially based failures.

As Americcca further medievalizes itself at all levels, expect corruption to rise as medievalism does.

In the parts of the nation stained by slavery and thus most blatanty corrupted by feelings of superiority, this trend (as we have already seen in places like Teneha, Texas and post-Katrina LA parishes) will be quickest and most pronounced.

NOTE: This is not "Southern-bashing", but a sad statement of fact. There are many good people in the South. There is plenty of corruption in the North & West, too, but the sad truth is the Old Confederacy is forever stained by it's slaveholding history, as evidenced by it's becoming the center of power for the Bushpublic Party, among other things.

[Heywood J]

11. Exactly. This is just to allow them to

look up the mugshot for each and pick out the race of each applicant.

[Fire1]

9. Dayum! I'd NEVER live in VA.! n/t

[X_Digger]

10. Sounds like a literacy test to vote.

Davis v. Schnell ruled literacy tests unconstitutional, and the Voting Rights Act of 65 put the last nail in that coffin.