Virginia is one of only two states to not restore voting rights to any felon after completion of their sentence without specific approval of the Governor. This goes for all felony convictions, ranging from burglary to drug convictions to murder.

Restoration of voting rights is a key issue for many members of the DNC, especially since minority voters are disenfranchised in far greater numbers than their percentage of the population.

Which brings us to a man with two jobs- Timothy M. Kaine- Governor of Virginia, and Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Here's what Kaine had to say recently about restoring voting rights:

“I think folks who serve their time should have their rights restored, especially those who have been convicted of nonviolent felonies,“ said Kaine.

WTOP political reporter Mark Plotkin asked why Kaine would not simply sign an executive order before he leaves office to restore rights to such individuals. Republican Governor-elect Bob McDonnell succeeds Kaine, a Democrat, on Jan. 16.

“Our analysis of Virginia law is that I can’t just do a blanket restoration—I have to restore people by name,“ the governor explained.

Kaine said the state has a simple one-page form to help expedite the process, which he says is “as near an automatic process as can be.“

“You fill it out, you ask for your rights back,“ he said. “You demonstrate that you’ve served your time and that you’ve been out and you haven’t committed any problems for a couple of years.

“If your felony was a nonviolent felony, we restored every right of everybody who applies,“ Kaine added. “If it’s a violent felony, we dig into it a little more."

Interesting, and sounds good. In fact, Kaine has restored thousands of people's rights to vote while Governor- including violent offenders, even people convicted of murder, rape, and other violent crimes.

But Kaine has some parts of this policy he doesn't want to talk about.

Meet Frank Anderson of Burke, Virginia. Frank was convicted of burglary years ago and has since served his time and been a contributing member of society. Local Democrats know him from his work on the Webb Campaign, the Obama Campaign and the Moran Campaign as well as almost every Democratic nominee after they were nominated.

Frank applied to have his voting rights restored- and got this back from the Secretary of the Commonwealth's office:

Subject: Restoration of rights
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:02:18 -0500
From: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
To: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Dear Mr. Anderson:

I am responding to your recent email to Governor Kaine regarding restoration of rights.

It is the policy of the Office of the Governor not to provide specific reasons why the Governor exercises his discretion not to grant requests for restoration of rights and not to reconsider decisions when requests are not granted.

However, one requirement is that applicants have no convictions for violations of the law for the three or five years (depending upon the nature of the felony) immediately prior to applying for restoration of rights. This includes moving violations, such as speeding.

I am sorry your record did not permit your rights to be restored and I encourage you to apply again when time and the absence of recent convictions allows your record to show no blemishes for the requisite waiting period.

Now, regarding the more general issue of restoring rights by executive order, we are not at all satisfied that this can be done in a manner that cannot be overturned by a court or by a subsequent executive order. Our staff has explored this thoroughly and we have carefully analyzed several proposals that advocates for doing this have submitted, and have not yet found a way to do this that has a reasonable chance of being administratively feasible and able to survive a court challenge or reversal by another executive order. If we develop or receive a feasible and legally sound proposal, it will be given utmost consideration. Absent that, the responsible way to restore rights is by amending the Constitution and we encourage advocates of restoring rights to make their views known to their legislators.

Sincerely,

Bernie Henderson
Senior Deputy Secretary of the Commonwealth

Let's be clear on what this means:

Governor Kaine is restoring voting rights for murderers, rapists and other violent offenders- as long as they don't have speeding tickets, but is rejecting applications of non-violent offenders if they have speeding tickets. As numerous studies have shown- minorities are pulled over in much larger percentages by the police- meaning this policy by Kaine is likely to seriously skew the pool of those eligible to have their rights restored.

The DNC Voting Rights Institute needs to investigate this immediately.

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