Northam’s actions, first shared with CNN, are the latest attempt to expand the franchise to ex-convicts in the state, and come just months before Virginia’s government and state legislative elections.
It also takes place amid a fight around the country over who has voting rights. Republican-controlled lawmakers are moving to restrict access to the ballot. On Feb. 19, lawmakers in 43 states passed more than 250 bills containing voting restrictions, according to a version from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. Arizona and Georgia – two traditionally Republican states that backed President Joe Biden this past fall – have paved the way by imposing new restrictions.
In some countries, partisan warfare is subject to the removal of barriers to voting for former criminals due to the perception that this group of voters is more likely to support democratic candidates.
Under current Virginia law, anyone convicted of a crime loses a variety of civil rights, including the right to vote, to serve on juries, or to serve in a public office. The state constitution gives the governor the sole power to restore most of the civil rights.
Previously, state policy required former criminals to undergo “active supervision,” including probation or parole, before being eligible to have their rights restored by the governor. Northam’s move means that Virgins who were released from prison but still remain on probation or can now be released.
Northam said on Tuesday that it was unfair to deprive former criminals of their rights once they had served their time.
“Trial periods can take years. But it is also time when someone lives in the community and rebuilds their lives,” he added. “They must be able to exercise civil rights, even if they are still under surveillance.”
“Voting these people or exercising other civil rights is not a threat to public safety,” he said. “We are a Commonwealth that believes in second chances. And we believe in forgiveness. We want people to move forward – not be bound by the mistakes of their past.”
Pending the announcement, government officials have reviewed the Department of Corrections’ records to identify former criminals who meet the new criteria, and Northam will restore the rights of 69,045 people on Tuesday, State Secretary Virginia Thomasson said. said.
“We’re making a kind of technical change that has a big impact,” Thomasson said in an interview with CNN on Tuesday morning. “You do not deserve to have these rights permanently removed because of a mistake you made. It is about treating people equally and fairly.”
Thomasson did not have demographic data for the more than 69,000 Virginia residents whose rights were restored Tuesday.
Nationally, nearly 5.2 million Americans cannot vote because of a crime offense, according to The Sentencing Project. The barrier particularly affects African Americans: one in 16 black people of voting age is excluded from the ballot box due to legitimate rights, nearly four times the percentage of non-black Americans, according to the group’s data.
Northam’s action is the latest in a series in Virginia to expand the franchise. With Tuesday’s announcement, Northam said he had restored the voting rights for more than 111,000 people during his tenure. The governor is limited and is not in Virginia this fall.
In Maine, Vermont and Washington, DC, criminals never lose their right to vote, even when they are behind bars.