Free Republic

In what is likely an unconstitutional state action seemingly calculated to ensure that the purple state of Virginia goes blue in the November election, Governor Terry McAuliffe (D.) signed an order on Friday restoring the voting rights of 206,000 ex-felons in Virginia, including those convicted of murder, armed robbery, rape, sexual assault, and other violent crimes. The order also restores their right to sit on a jury, become a notary, and even serve in elected office. McAuliffe believes that ex-felons can be trusted to make decisions in the ballot booth and the jury box but apparently not to own a...

I wrote here about Rand Paul’s unconstitutional plan to propose federal legislation that would enfranchise some felons. Now, Sen. Paul has addressedthe constitutional issue posed by such legislation. He argues, in essence, that states decide who votes in state elections, but the federal government has the final say on who can vote in federal elections. Roger Clegg makes short work of Paul’s contention: The U.S. Constitution itself explicitly gives the authority to decide who votes in federal elections to the states (consistent, of course, with other constitutional guarantees, like the prohibition of poll taxes). And the recent Supreme Court decision...

Who is funding the efforts to get ex-felons registered to vote in Virginia? Apparently it’s the George Soros-funded Tides Foundation. The foundation has long supported felony rights restoration by writing large checks to groups that work with states to register former felons. In the past, the foundation set up the Civic Participation Fund, which was aimed at aiding social-change organizations focused in new-majority communities that “need money, and need it fast,” the Tides website says. The fund, formerly known as the Voter Action Fund, granted more than $8 million to advocacy groups “working to address the legal, procedural, and technological...

Florida Governor Charlie Crist says the state is investigating whether thousands of felons are on the voting rolls who shouldn’t be. Last year the state cabinet voted to automatically restore the civil rights of more than 130,000 non-violent offenders. A recent newspaper investigation found 30,000 felons who are still banned from voting are registered to cast ballots on Election Day. Governor Charlie Crist says he has confidence that Secretary of State Kurt Browning will handle the problem. "One of the things we’ve try to do, and I think successfully, is have former felons have the ability to vote much sooner...

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- A man facing prison time on a drug charge has gotten a break from a judge -- so that he can vote. Twenty-four-year-old Javontez Lavel Ross pleaded guilty Thursday to possessing several bags of suspected heroin with intent to sell. But he asked Ramsey County District Judge Margaret Marrinan to postpone his sentencing so he could vote in the Nov. 4 election. Ross, who said he recently moved to the Twin Cities from Chicago, would have been barred from voting if he had been sentenced before Election Day. The judge granted his request, calling the contest...

To Angel Romero, a former drug dealer who would someday like to vote, a recent revision to state law that makes it easier for felons to regain their voting rights after serving their sentence was long overdue. Still, the new law might not go far enough, because it will likely end up discriminating against poor people, especially minorities, according to a panel that discussed the issue Monday at the Beck Cultural Exchange Center. Romero, who said she is serving the balance of a 16-year sentence on probation, explained that voting rights are of vital importance for criminals who've turned their...

If you can't win elections, change the rules. Despite warnings from people such as the chairman of Maryland's State Board of Elections that the new rules are inviting voter fraud, the General Assembly has pushed through regulations weakening safeguards on provisional ballots, absentee ballots and a long early voting period. Not satisfied, the legislature now wants to make it easier for convicted murderers, rapists, armed robbers and other violent criminals to vote. Overall, 150,000 felons would be eligible. When asked if the felon voting bill was motivated to defeat Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s re-election bid this year, Del. Jill...

"Vote" by Anthony Papa (http://www.15yearstolife.com)In the early 1980s I was permitted to enter the Washington, DC Jail and Lorton Federal Prison, to register inmates and prisoners to vote. At that time:1. Jail inmates not convicted were eligible to both register and vote;2. Prisoners convicted of a crime, but had not exhausted their appeal remedies were also eligible to register and to vote;3. However, prisoners convicted, and who had exhausted their appeal remedies were not eligible to register or vote;4. Also, the moment a prisoner was released from DC prisons and stepped outside, they were eligible to register to vote.With their...