Virginia is one of seven states in the union that do not believe that ex-criminals can ever “pay their debt to society.” Anybody convicted of a felony is barred from voting, for life, no matter the felony, no matter the punishment. The only recourse is to personally petition the governor for the restoration of voting rights, and that’s only several years after they’ve served their term and paid any money that they owe. Every year, hundreds of ex-felons ask the governor to have their voting rights restored, since they have, indeed, paid their debt to society, and want the right of full citizenship; anything less is, as the colonists said, taxation without representation.
Governor Mark Warner has been wonderful about restoring citizens’ voting rights. He simplified the petition process, and rather than just a small number of white-collar crooks — the governor’s cronies — having their rights restored, he has enabled almost 2,000 ex-felons to become a part of the democratic process once again. There can be no doubt that this involvement in the political community reduces the anomie that criminologists believe is responsible for much crime in the first place.
Del. Brad Marrs (R-Chesterfield) is angry about this. Del. Marrs demands the release of thousands of pages of documentation about each of the restorations, apparently convinced that this is some Massive Left-Wing Conspiracy™. Last week, a judge told him to go screw. Turns out that the guy really wasn’t interested in finding out — he just wanted to throw a monkey wrench into the governor’s race between Attorney General Jerry Kilgore and Lt. Governor Tim Kaine, as The Virginian-Pilot reports today.
Ex-felons are just that — ex. They’re citizens, they have paid their debt to society, and, in most cases, should be treated like anybody else. This is a self-selecting group: the sort of ex-felon who applies to get their voting rights restored is not the sort that’s doing so to…um…do whatever evil thing that people might fear that they’d do with their vote. Cast a ballot for Mickey Mouse, or something similarly nefarious.
If anything, what Del. Marrs’ casting-about makes clear is that there’s really no justifiable fear of what may happen if we join the rest of the nation — indeed, the world — and treat our citizens like citizens.
Governor Warner is a little more conservative than I would like, but this is the one way in which I most admire him. Kudos to the Governor.
When he’s President, we can make this federal law.