Report commissioned by Virginia Attorney General suggests state agency review felon applications

A report commissioned by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (and candidate for Virginia’s governorship, and author, and…and….) concluded that more applications for felon’s restoration of voting could be processed if the task were taken out of the hands of the governor’s review and approval and assigned to a state agency instead.

According to the sacred document that is Virginia’s Constitution, the governor has the power “to remove political disabilities” for individuals who have lost their voting rights as a result of a criminal conviction(s).

Much to Governor McDonnell’s credit, he has worked to restore voting rights back to thousands of Virginians. In fact, McDonnell has worked to restore civil rights to over 4,600 Virginia citizens during his tenure. Perhaps McDonnell believes his drones will deter most of them from committing anymore crimes?

According to The Virginian-Pilot, however, 350,000 Virginians are estimated to still be disenfranchised due to felony convictions. That’s a truly staggering and scary number.

But, of course, 350,000 is more than a number, it is the sum total of 350,000 individual Virginians who are legally less than full citizens in our state.

In a perfect criminal justice system, perhaps this figure wouldn’t be so staggering. After all, society has rules and if someone egregiously breaks these rules, then some of their civil rights should be stripped away (dependent upon the offense) indefinitely as punishment.

Virginia’s criminal justice system isn’t perfect, however. That is, it is not inconceivable that a sizable minority of convicted felons were wrongfully convicted or simply handed a sentence to which a majority of Virginians would agree wasn’t deserved. And the list of scenarios could go on.

Aside from inevitable human errors that creep into every social institution, the bottom line is that everyone but the most egregious offenders of our law deserve a second chance. We all do the best with the circumstances we’re given in life and sometimes we fall on our face.

Making a bad decision should not, however, be the end of our stories as full-fledged citizens. We are all the culminations of the decisions we make throughout a life, not simply at a single point in our individual journeys.