The saga of disenfranchisement continues.
Convicted felons in the Commonwealth are prohibited to exercise their most imperative right – voting. Virginia restricts ex-felons from voting and running or holding office for life.
Literary tests, grandfather clauses and poll taxes are things of our troubled past. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 took care of those obstacles. However, discrimination persists today with this current injustice.
Virginia is not the only state to strip these men and women of their rights. Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico and Wyoming are the others practicing disenfranchisement.
A study conducted by the Richmond Times-Dispatch found a disproportionate number of felons robbed of their rights were black males. According to Human Rights Watch, 1 out of 4 black men are permanently disenfranchised.
Hope exists, though. In Virginia, an ex-felon may apply for a restoration of rights. According to the office of Secretary of the Commonwealth, an ex-felon must meet certain criteria. He must be a Virginia resident. He must have paid all of his court fines. He must also have been released from supervised probation for a minimum of three years for a nonviolent offense or five years for a violent, drug distribution or drug manufacturing offense.
Once he fills in his application, it takes another six months to arrive on the Governor’s desk. The governor is the only individual with the power to grant restoration of rights. If the application is denied, the applicant must wait another two years to re-apply.
This process still leaves democracy reserved for only squeaky clean Americans and mounds of paperwork for the unfortunate others.
So, a criminal is put in prison because he is said to be a threat to our most prized possessions, our families and our money. He then serves his time or, as some would say, “pays his debt to society.” Then, why should his rights be removed permanently?
If that convict is OK to leave the confines of that particular penitentiary, shouldn’t he able to exercise his rights as an American when he returns to society? If not, one should make some serious changes to this nation’s prison-industrial complex.