Subject: Flag: (The Virginian-Pilot) Roger Chesley: A disingenuous argument for restricting voting rights
From: "Jefferson, Deshundra" <[email-masked]>
To: Comm_D <[email-masked]>
Cc: Pratt Wiley <[email-masked]>, Lindsay Langholz <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 May 2016 06:54:09 -0700

Roger Chesley is a member of The Virginian-Pilot's editorial board, and he has been following this issue closely. He used the transcript of Rep. Scott's remarks from our press call in his column, as well as some of our messaging.

Roger Chesley: A disingenuous argument for restricting voting rights<http://pilotonline.com/news/local/columnist/roger-chesley/roger-chesley-a-disingenuous-argument-for-restricting-voting-rights/article_780aecdd-d9f3-5a30-8521-16fab8d7b6eb.html>

SO, NEARLY 80 percent of the 206,000 released felons who got their voting rights back, courtesy of an executive order from Gov. Terry McAuliffe, were convicted of nonviolent crimes. The predictable Republican response? Pfttt.

Most of those ex-felons, according to an analysis by the guv's office, left the criminal justice system at least 10 years ago. Surely they've completed their punishment.

The GOP asserts: More than 40,000 violent felons now will get to vote, serve on juries and run for office; it's an abomination! (Yet, most other states have restoration policies less odious than the commonwealth's.)

It's a classic case of moving the goalposts. No matter what details or moral suasion McAuliffe and fellow Democrats offer, they won't convince Republicans that restoration of voting is just, long overdue, and grants people a stronger stake in their communities.

This reflects badly on a party that, across the country, has worked feverishly to restrict access to the polls. GOP-controlled state legislatures have responded to changing population demographics by requiring photo IDs, reducing early voting and toughening voter registration requirements. Victory - not fairness - has become their guiding principle.

In Virginia, the Republican opposition to McAuliffe's decision last month says more about them than it does the governor.

It means they cling to a disenfranchisement clause involving felons in the state constitution that's rooted in racism. That clause has lasted more than a century.

It means they fear African Americans will sway more electoral contests, though they've been disproportionately prevented from voting.

It means Republicans would rather spend more energy keeping people from the polls than offering a platform palatable to more of the electorate.

The McAuliffe administration noted that nearly 46 percent of felons with new voting rights are African American, even though blacks make up less than 20 percent of the state's population. Some 51 percent of the felons are white. Such statistics, as I've alluded to previously, show the criminal justice system treats black and brown defendants more harshly than whites for the same crimes.

Should the governor release more information about the former inmates? Yes, though such details won't silence Republican opposition.

"The delayed, incomplete, and unverified data released by Governor McAuliffe in no way excuses his reckless decision to restore the civil rights of violent offenders and flagrant violation of the Constitution," House Speaker William Howell said in a statement this week. Republicans have retained an attorney to fight the executive order.

"If they would just show us the data, we could look at it," Del. Robert Bell, R-Albemarle, told The Washington Post.

They're being disingenuous.

On the one hand, Democrats have to release information that will never assuage GOP loyalists. On the other, Republicans offered virtually no evidence that large-scale voter impersonation, the type photo ID is supposed to thwart, occurs in Virginia. That didn't stop the General Assembly from ramming through a photo ID law.

McAuliffe wants Hillary Clinton to win Virginia this fall and help keep the White House in Democratic hands. Obviously, more Democratic-leaning voters would make the path easier.

But think about this: How many previous elections would've ended differently if more people had been eligible to vote?

It's a point Rep. Bobby Scott, a Newport News Democrat, noted in a conference call Thursday about the ongoing debate. Republicans "claim that this is a partisan ploy that will give Democrats the edge in November," Scott said, according to a text of his remarks. "If that's truly the case, then Republicans have been coasting into office all these years by limiting Democratic turnout."

Hundreds of thousands of freed felons deserve the right to be fully reintegrated into society. That includes voting.

Partisan politics shouldn't prevent that right.

[SigDems]<http://www.democrats.org/>Deshundra Jefferson, Southern Regional Communications Director
Democratic National Committee
[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]> | (202) 863-8112