Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D.) has restored voting rights to 13,000 convicted felons after a previous order allowing convicted felons to vote was rejected by Virginia’s Supreme Court.
McAuliffe had individual orders signed by autopen after the court had ordered in July that his blanket restoration order for 200,000 felons was unconstitutional. Republicans had to take the case to court to have the order thrown out.
During a ceremony at a civil rights memorial in Richmond’s Capitol Square on Monday, McAuliffe announced that he restored the voting rights of 13,000 felons and vowed to restore them for the other 187,000 felons from his original plan.
The reinstatement of voting rights for thousands of convicted felons comes as Hillary Clinton, who McAuliffe has been closely allied with for years, is running for president. Clinton’s running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine, is from Virginia. Many observers see these orders as attempts to bring more voters into the fold to support Democrats
The Washington Post noted that not all of the felons in the initial order were convicted of minor crimes and had completed their sentences.
Republicans also found that the McAuliffe administration had mistakenly restored rights to 132 sex offenders still in custody as well as to several convicted killers on probation in other states.