THE VOTE - Felons in Virginia

"Felons who've paid their debt deserve to vote, says Virginia Gov. McAuliffe" PBS NewsHour 4/22/2016

Amen, a man of principle.  Rehabilitation does NOT work without some reward.

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe signed a sweeping order Friday to restore voting rights to more than 200,000 convicted felons within the state.  McAuliffe described the action as an effort to reverse decades of voter repression, but state Republicans accused the governor of abusing his powers to help Hillary Clinton win a valuable swing state.  McAuliffe joins Judy Woodruff for more.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe signed a sweeping order today to restore voting rights to more than 200,000 convicted felons after their release from prison.

Republicans in the commonwealth quickly accused the governor of abusing his executive power to help Democrat Hillary Clinton win a battleground state.

Governor McAuliffe joins me now from Richmond.

Governor, welcome.

Why the decision to overturn something that's been in place in your state since the Civil War?

GOV. TERRY MCAULIFFE (D), Virginia:  Well, let's be honest.  We have had a bad history here on voting rights in Virginia.  1901, 1902, they put in the poll tax.  They put in literacy tests.  And they had a horrible disenfranchisement for felons.

So, what I did today was to erase 114, 115 years of a really, really repressive tactic used to deprive people their right to vote.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  You included convicted felons who were accused of violent crimes, murder, rape.  You didn't make any exceptions.  Why not?

GOV. TERRY MCAULIFFE:  Nope.  Why should I?

Once you have served your time, once you have paid your debt to society, the judge, jury have determined what your sentence would be, once you complete that, why should you not be back in?

When these people, even if they have committed heinous crimes, but once they have finished serving their sentence, they go back to their communities, they get jobs, they have family members.  You want them, Judy — I want everybody back getting a job.  I want them paying taxes.  I want them feeling good about themselves.

You have paid your debt to society.