RICHMOND – Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s decision to restore the voting rights of more than 200,000 felons has set off a frenzied effort by advocacy groups to register them in the hope they can swing not just the presidential election but state politics for the next decade.
More than 2,000 former felons have registered to vote in the two weeks since McAuliffe signed his controversial executive order – many helped by the left-leaning New Virginia Majority, labor unions and the NAACP, as well as a hodgepodge of local and civic religious groups.
Neither of the major political parties nor the presidential campaigns of Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are involved in the effort at this point.
But hours after McAuliffe (D) signed the order, canvassers from New Virginia Majority were fanning out across Virginia’s urban crescent, paperwork at the ready, hunting for newly eligible voters.
Because voters in Virginia do not register a party affiliation, it’s difficult to know with certainty which political party will gain from the registration drive. But most observers expect that former felons will identify with the Democratic agenda of criminal justice reform, higher wages, access to health care and paid sick leave. Estimates vary, but experts say a quarter of the newly eligible voters are African Americans, who tend to vote for Democrats.
Republicans say McAuliffe’s move is clearly designed to help Clinton, his close friend, carry Virginia in November.
“The singular purpose of Terry McAuliffe’s governorship is to elect Hillary Clinton President of the United States,” House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) said in a recent statement. “The one-time nature of this action is proof positive of the governor’s political motivations. Instead of adopting a clear policy that can be applied equitably, he is changing the rules in the middle of the 2016 election to ensure Hillary Clinton’s victory.”
McAuliffe’s order, which he has to renew every month, can be reversed by the next governor.
Tram Nguyen, co-executive director of New Virginia Majority, dismissed Howell’s suggestion. “People say it’s political,” she said. “But for us, this is a moral issue and something that’s beyond any election cycle, beyond any candidate. It’s about giving a voice to a community that has felt voiceless.”
Only a fraction of those eligible are likely to cast ballots on Election Day, but in a state with a recent spate of close elections, even a small number of new voters could affect the outcome.
And a new block of voters could decide not only the presidential contest in this swing state but also the winner of the 2017 governor’s race and the upcoming once-a-decade round of redistricting for state legislative and congressional districts.
One of those new voters is Phil Thomas.
He got caught with $20 worth of crack in a car almost 20 years ago, and long after he quit drugs the charge haunted him, he said.
“Now I look back on it, it’s the worst mistake I made,” Thomas, 47, said last week while on a break from cutting grass at a public housing development in northside Richmond. “Because I’m getting old now, I’m realizing how important [voting] is.”
“Sanders and Clinton are talking about moving the minimum wage to $15, and that would help us,” he said. “Cruz and Trump, they don’t care about us. They just care about the rich,” he said, referring to the 2016 field before Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas dropped out.
Thomas didn’t realize McAuliffe’s order automatically restored his rights until an organizer from New Virginia Majority told him. He signed the registration form on the spot.
The last presidential ballot Thomas cast was for Bill Clinton. He remembered how it stung when George W. Bush won the White House in an election in which he was barred from voting.
Thomas is just the kind of new voter Democrats want.
“These Virginians have paid their debt to society and now have the right to vote; of course the DPVA will be working to get them registered and earn their votes,” said Emily Bolton, spokeswoman for the Democratic Party of Virginia.
