Clinton Ally, Virginia Gov. Restores Voting Rights to Felons ahead of 2016 Election

It turns out that the liberal rhetoric that Republicans are suppressing minority voters ahead of the 2016 election is not quite enough to motivate their base.  In the past, Democrats have attempted to expand their base through amnesty for illegal aliens.  With that strategy tied up in the courts, it appears they have discovered a new game plan — overturn a centuries-old provision banning convicted felons from voting.

Hillary Clinton has been pandering to African-Americans since the outset of her presidential run.  Now, her good friend, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe has used his executive power to grant voting rights to convicted felons.  The New York Times reports on the governor’s move.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia used his executive power on Friday to restore voting rights to more than 200,000 convicted felons, circumventing the Republican-run legislature. The action effectively overturns a Civil War-era provision in the state’s Constitution aimed, he said, at disenfranchising African-Americans.

The sweeping order, in a swing state that could play a role in deciding the November presidential election, will enable all felons who have served their prison time and finished parole or probation to register to vote. Most are African-Americans, a core constituency of Democrats, Mr. McAuliffe’s political party.

Amid intensifying national attention over harsh sentencing policies that have disproportionately affected African-Americans, governors and legislatures around the nation have been debating — and often fighting over — moves to restore voting rights for convicted felons. Virginia imposes especially harsh restrictions, barring felons from voting for life.

Even the liberal mouthpiece, New York Times, acknowledges — towards the bottom of the article — McAuliffe’s close relationship with the Clintons.

But the move led to accusations that the governor was playing politics; he is a longtime friend of — and fund-raiser for — Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee for president, and former President Bill Clinton.

In the interview, Mr. McAuliffe said that he was not acting for political reasons, and that few people outside his immediate staff knew of his plan. He said he did not consult with Mrs. Clinton or her campaign before making the decision.

The executive order builds on steps the governor had already taken to restore voting rights to 18,000 Virginians since the beginning of his term, and he said he believed his authority to issue the decision was “ironclad.”

Prof. A. E. Dick Howard of the University of Virginia School of Law, the principal draftsman of a revised Constitution adopted by Virginia in 1971, agreed, and said the governor had “ample authority.” But Professor Howard, who advised Mr. McAuliffe on the issue, said the move might well be challenged in court. The most likely argument, he said, is that the governor cannot restore voting rights to an entire class of people all at once.

Time will tell if the move was enough to tip the scales in Virginia — a swing state — in favor of Mrs. Clinton.  Convicted felons break strongly in favor of Democrats, and may swing even more towards Hillary Clinton, a potential future convict herself.

Source: New York Times