We recently wrote about the efforts of Virginia’s Governor, and long-time Clinton confidant, Terry McAuliffe, to restore voting rights to 200,000 ex-felons (see “FelonsVotesMatter (To Hillary) – Clinton’s Election Fate In Virginia Lies With 200,000 Unregistered Offenders“). As we pointed out, 200,000 is over 5% of the 3.8mm people who voted in the Presidential race in 2012 and is larger than Obama’s margin of victory over Mitt Romney of 149,298. But we certainly don’t mean to imply that McAuliffe’s efforts are in any way motivated by a desire to help Clinton win the state of Virginia in November…we’re sure this problem is just an issue that has tugged at McAuliffe’s heart for a long time. But we digress.
Back in July, Virginia’s Supreme Court blocked McAuliffe’s effort to restore voting rights to 200,000 ex-felons all at one time saying that he would instead have to restore each person’s voting right individually. Proving his determination and willingness to devote unlimited taxpayer funds to the effort, the Washington Post is reporting that McAuliffe will announce on Monday that he has restored efforts to the first 13,000 ex felons on a “case-by-case” basis. He is expected to continue the effort until the voting rights for all 200,000 ex-felons have been restored.
News Alert: @GovernorVA to announce restoration of voting rights to 13,000 felons. pic.twitter.com/UfF0MTKtV0
— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 21, 2016
Not everyone is happy with the efforts, of course. According to the Washington Post, Republicans have questioned how thoroughly the list of ex-felons is being vetted noting that the Governor’s previous efforts mistakenly restored voting rights to 132 sex offenders still in custody among other criminals that were still incarcerated.
Republicans also found the McAuliffe administration had mistakenly restored rights to 132 sex offenders still in custody and to several convicted murderers on probation in other states.
Del. Robert B. Bell (R-Albemarle), a 2017 candidate for state attorney general who has led the charge against McAuliffe’s order, said he would watch any new restoration efforts closely because of the problems with the original order.
“Given that his first order was unconstitutional and included a non-citizen sex offender in Peru, we will certainly want to review whatever he does on Monday very carefully,” Bell said.
Not one to mince words, Trump was fairly clear about his thoughts on the matter while delivering remarks in Fredericksburg, Va. Per NewMax:
“Hillary Clinton is banking on her friend, Terry McAuliffe, on getting thousands of violent felons to the voting booth in an effort to cancel out the votes of both law enforcement and crime victims. They are letting people vote in your Virginia election that should not be allowed to vote.”
Finally, just because we need a little humor to keep from losing our minds amidst all the political insanity, we leave you with the following clip of Trump questioning just how close Hillary and Terry might be.
Subtler Trump, saying Hillary/Terry McAuliffe are closer than Hillary & Bill ???? pic.twitter.com/z0nLDfHPJ1
— Marcus Gilmer (@marcusgilmer) August 2, 2016
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