Saturday, May 07, 2016

246.6 - Virginia extends voting rights

Virginia extends voting rights

Recently, we've had some good news about voting rights, including Maryland's restoration of some rights to felons who've done their prison time and a unanimous SCOTUS smacking down an attempt to redefine "one person one vote" in a way to benefit the reactionaries.

More dramatically on that score, on April 22 VA Gov. Terry McAuliffe used a broad interpretation of executive clemency powers to restore voting rights to more than 200,000 state residents who had been permanently barred from voting because of a felony conviction.

Maryland and Virginia are part of a trend: The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, which tracks issues of voter rights, says that over the last two decades about 20 states have acted to ease their restrictions on felons being able to vote.

Nice to know that voting rights are being expanded in one way, anyway.

Sources cited in links:
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/02/2371-good-news-some-voting-rights.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/04/2433-supreme-court-unanimously-smacks.html
http://www.ifyouonlynews.com/politics/virginias-awesomely-sneaky-governor-screws-republicans-restores-voting-rights-to-200000-americans/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/04/22/about-200000-convicted-felons-in-virginia-will-now-have-the-right-to-vote-in-november/
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/23/us/governor-terry-mcauliffe-virginia-voting-rights-convicted-felons.html

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