Posted on 07/15/2013 5:35:28 PM PDT by Olog-hai
The door opened Monday for tens of thousands of nonviolent felons in Virginia to regain the right to vote, with state officials outlining steps each will have to take to recapture their basic civil rights.
Gov. Bob McDonnell has said up to 100,000 disenfranchised felons ultimately could be added to the voter rolls, serve on a jury or hold political office.
“For past offenders, our goal is to grant civil rights back to as many as possible,” McDonnell said in a statement. “This is the right thing to do for all Virginians to help make the commonwealth a safer and better place.” …
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Oh yeah, this can’t end well.
That's not to say I own guns ...they all went down in a boating accident some years ago.
Animal Farm
Some citizens are more citizens than others.
Living in VA, I don’t see a problem with NONVIOLENT felons who’ve served their time.
Being a life long Va. resident, I guess I have a dog in this hunt. One part of my common sense says that it is bad business to return felons their rights. One part tells me that historically, when a man (or woman) paid their debt to society then that was it. They could return to society and hopefully contribute in a positive way. They could vote, own a gun, etc. I don’t know when the law was enacted that stripped felons of their rights. The Constitution says nothing about a citizen forfeiting their rights after a felony conviction. I have an old friend in law enforcement who once sagely told me, that the only differance between us and those with a record, is that when we were young, we didn’t get caught. I do find it interesting that Virginia, a state that requires voter i.d., would consider returning voter privaledges to non-violent felons. That doesn’t seem like an efficient way to deprive voter rights.
It might help this argument if there were fewer felonies.
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