As I have canvassed Virginia for the last several months, one of the things that I've discovered is how horrendously unjust the Commonwealth is regarding felon voting rights.
I discussed this issue at length in a previous diary. In Virginia, one felony and you never vote again. This in a state with a broken negligent defense system, where the dollar cutoff for felony larceny hasn't changed in decades, and where the number of felons has increased by an order of magnitude in a generation.
The upshot is that more than a quarter (more likely about a third) of adult African-American men are disenfranchised.
Today a Washington Post article discusses the work of civic groups who are taking advantage of the unprecedented interest of African-Americans and others to do something to rectify the injustice of Virginia's laws.
Of course to "balance" the article the Washington Post writers needed to find Republicans to hem and haw about these efforts. Make no mistake, these are really concerns about too many blacks getting back on the rolls.
"'I don' t know a lot of young Republicans who end up being felons,' said Del. C. Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah). 'Clearly the groups that are soliciting these felons to get their rights restored are predisposed to be in support of Obama, and I am sure this registration effort is designed to help their candidate.'"
Well, Del. Gilbert, I don't know a lot of young Republicans who tend to be felons either. Then again I don't know a lot of young Republicans.
Del. Gilbert, did you know the DEA has said that the Shenandoah Valley, which contains your less than 2% African-American district, has the highest proportion of meth users in the state. Quick, better disenfranchise them! Of course, your own party's president would be unable to vote in Virginia if the law were neutrally and universally applied.
Del. Gilbert, in the Circuit Court district in your sparsely populated, virtually all white corner of the state, there were 8913 felony cases in 2006.
Del. Gilbert, During my canvassing I have met a woman disenfranchised because she did not realize she had to immediately report a new source of income when she was on food stamps. She was not sentenced to any time in jail, promptly paid back the money, but has been unable to vote for more than a decade. I met another person who wrote a bad check at 21 and hasn't voted since. She's in her fifties.
Do you think this is just?