Virginia’s disenfranchised
Virginia is still more restrictive than most states in restoring voting rights.
Today, 57-year-old Bennett Barbour plans to vote for the first time.
The Providence Forge man, who has bone cancer, was cleared this spring of a 1978 rape conviction, but unrelated burglary and grand larceny felonies from 34 years ago nearly prevented him from fulfilling his wish to cast a ballot.
November 6, 2012 - 7:18 AM
Simple solution, don’t do the crime!
Simpler solution, once you have “done your time”, you get your right to vote back.
#2 – “Simpler solution, once you have “done your time”, you get your right to vote back.”
So, all is forgiven once you’ve done your time?
As a matter of fact, yes Michael, that is how our society is supposed to work. Do you prefer “scarlet letters” and penalties for life for all?
#4 – If that’s the case, Sandi, should sex offenders have to still register after they’ve served their sentence?
Off the top of my head, having or not having to register as a sex offender is not a civil right that I was aware of.
But if, as you say, all is forgiven, shouldn’t that apply to them as well?
And BTW, voting is not a Constitutional right.
I did not say “all is forgiven” across the board, I said, you should get your right to vote back.
“That all elections ought to be free; and that all men, having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and attachment to, the community, have the right of suffrage, and cannot be taxed, or deprived of, or damaged in, their property for public uses, without their own consent, or that of their representatives duly elected, or bound by any law to which they have not, in like manner, assented for the public good.”
~The Virginia Constitution.