Low Turnout in Virginia: It's Also About Felon Disenfranchisement

Lost in all the political spin around the elections this week is the issue of, once again, abominable turnout. The conventional wisdom is that this is always the case for an “off year” election, as though that were in itself some legitimate justification or reason not to care. The importance of our democracy tells us it is not. The situation in Virginia was particularly disheartening. But Virginia’s new governor, Robert McDonnell, can take a step towards doing something about that.

In Virginia, the numbers were even worse this year than they were in the 2005 off year election. In fact, falling below 40% of the electorate, the turnout in Virginia was the worst it has been in 40 years. Though pundits and politicians can attribute it to Democratic Creigh Deeds’ lackluster campaign, the large lead the Republican candidate had in the polls by the end of the campaign, or disappointment with events in Washington, the decline in young and minority voters was especially disappointing.

While about 20 percent of the electorate in 2008 was black, exit polls showed that number was 16 percent on Tuesday. Most likely because the campaigns did not make a concerted effort to reach out to young people and youth organizations were not funded to do the type of mobilization they’ve been doing over the last several years, the percentage of young people voting was cut in half from about 20 percent of the electorate to about 10. While the Latino percentage of the electorate last year was a good 5 percent, this year it fell to 3 percent.

And then there is the huge group of invisible Americans who might have liked to vote in Virginia, and might have made a difference in the outcomes, but were not allowed. That is the huge number of citizens who, because of Virginia’s egregious felon disenfranchisement law (along with Kentucky, the worst in the country), were barred from voting because they had at some time been convicted of a felony. Almost 400,000 Virginians have no voting rights for this reason. About 300,000 of them are not in jail, but rather have already served their entire sentence. In fact, many of them, although convicted of a felony, have never even been in jail because their crime did not merit jail time. In total, 6.8 percent of Virginians are barred from democracy.

Virginia is one of only two states in the entire country that still bars citizens who have been convicted of a felony from voting for life. While most other states in the country have seen the light over the last several years and recognized disenfranchisement of such voters as undemocratic, counterproductive to rehabilitation and integration into society, based on laws from one hundred years ago designed specifically and intentionally to exclude African Americans from the voting process, and a fundamental violation of human rights, Virginia persists in this practice.

The only way someone with a felony record in Virginia can rejoin the nation’s democratic process is to make an individual request with the Governor. However, the Governor has the authority to grant or deny such requests for any reason and without having to give one. Moreover, the application process is utterly daunting, and requires all sorts of paperwork. There is also a waiting time between three and five years to apply, even after the citizen has completed every aspect of his or her sentence.

(Soon to be former) Virginia Governor Tim Kaine should be and has been congratulated for speeding up the process for restoring ex-felon voting rights. As of September 1, 2009, Kaine had restored the rights of 3,598 convicted felons--more than any other Virginia governor since at least 1938. But that is woefully insufficient, and clearly does not represent the solution.

Unfortunately, Virginia's process for restoration of rights is enshrined in its Constitution. Bills to pass a constitutional amendment are introduced regularly in the Virginia state legislature, but as of now, to no avail. That fight must continue. Federal legislation is moving in the U.S. Senate that would set a uniform standard for restoring voting rights, including in Virginia, but it is not clear when that might pass. In the meantime, there is yet one more, albeit temporary solution. According to the Advancement Project,

The Governor of Virginia, acting by Executive Order, has the authority to grant an across-the-board restoration of voting rights to all Virginians who have completed the terms of criminal sentences resulting from felony convictions. The Virginia Constitution vests the Governor with plenary power to ‘restore political disabilities’ to any and all people with felony convictions.

Former Republican Attorney General Robert McDonnell has just won the gubernatorial election by a landslide. Wouldn't it be something if he was to repay the voters, those who voted for him and those who did not, by showing his commitment to a true and inclusive democracy by issuing such an order and bringing Virginia in line with most of the rest of the states in the country?