Northam’s action, first shared with CNN, is the latest effort to expand the franchise for ex-convicts in the state, and takes place a few months before the state legislature and governor of Virginia.
It also takes place in the middle of a nationwide battle over who has the right to vote. Republican-controlled legislatures are moving to restrict access to the polls. As of February 19, lawmakers in 43 states had submitted more than 250 bills that included voting restrictions, according to a count by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. Arizona and Georgia – two traditionally Republican states that supported President Joe Biden last fall – paved the way for new restrictions.
Removing obstacles to voting for ex-criminals has been the subject of party wars in some states because of the perception that this cohort of voters is more likely to support Democratic candidates.
Under current Virginia law, anyone convicted of a crime loses a number of civil rights, including the right to vote, to serve on juries, or to run for public office. The state constitution gives the governor the exclusive power to restore most of these civil rights.
Previously, state policy required ex-offenders to finish serving “active supervision”, including probation or probation, before being eligible to have their rights restored by the governor. Northam’s move means that Virginians who were released from prison but still remain on probation or probation can now vote.
On Tuesday, Northam said it was unfair to deprive ex-criminals of their rights after serving their sentences.
“Trial periods can last for years. But it is also the time that a person lives in the community, rebuilding their lives ”, he added. “They must be able to exercise these civil rights, even if they are still under supervision.”
“Allowing these people to vote or exercise other civil rights is not a threat to public security,” he said. “We are a community that believes in second chances. And we believe in forgiveness. We want people to move on – not to be tied up by the mistakes of their past.”
State officials, in anticipation of the announcement, reviewed the Department of Corrections records to identify ex-criminals who meet the new criteria, and Northam will restore the rights of 69,045 people on Tuesday, said Kelly Thomasson, Virginia’s community secretary. .
“We are making a kind of technical change that has a big impact,” Thomasson told CNN in an interview on Tuesday morning. “You don’t deserve to have those rights permanently taken away because of a mistake you made. It’s about treating people equally and fairly.”
Thomasson had no demographic data for Virginia’s more than 69,000 residents whose rights were being restored on Tuesday.
Nationally, nearly 5.2 million Americans are unable to vote because of a felony conviction, according to The Sentencing Project. The barrier particularly affects African-Americans: one in 16 blacks of voting age is barred from voting because of disenfranchisement laws, almost four times the rate of non-black Americans, the group’s data show.
Northam’s shares are the latest in a series in Virginia to expand the franchise. With Tuesday’s announcement, Northam said he restored the voting rights of more than 111,000 people during his term. The governor has a limited term and is not on Virginia ballots this fall.
In Maine, Vermont and Washington, DC, criminals never lose their voting rights, even when they are behind bars.