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Virginia Governor Restores Voting Rights to Felons

Governor made the right decision.

  • Total voters
    54
Fearandloathing said:
Does the constitution SAY all criminals will lose they're vote. My US education ended 50 years ago, but I don't recall it saying that.

If you allow a government to remove rights, you weaken democracy and strengthen corruption. Rights cannot be arbitrary in that one day a government decides that say, people with aids can't have the right to vote.

The fact that it is happening here, used for political reasons is proof enough to me it is a completely asinine restriction of a right that should e sacrosanct and untouchable. I consider the right to vote the greatest right there i, without it all the rest can disappear.
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I do not believe the constitution says anywhere that felons lose all rights, and constitution trumps federal law. In my opinion the punishment should fit the crime, and the only constitutional rights that should be stripped from someone are those abused, like people should only lose their right to vote from voter fraud, people should only lose their gun rights for violent felonies, not just any felony, like having pot or knocking over a mailbox.
 
No one should have their right to vote removed after they are out of prison. The only people that I could see that should lose their vote are traitors to the USA, and they generally aren't here to vote anyways. Republicans trying to win by silencing citizens. What a shocker.
 
Fenton said:
Dems need all the votes they can get and if they have to give felons their right to vote back, then so be it.
Fortunately for everyone else, felons accout for a slim majority of overall voters

Guess the Democrats will have to continue flooding this Natuon with illegals then
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The way I see it, if a felon has served his time, and is no longer on parole, then he has paid his debt to society. He should be able to vote, or even own a gun if his crime was not committed using one.
 
JANFU said:
Well they did lose their right to vote, now it has been returned. So how is it vote buying?
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They would be more likely to vote for a Governor [Leftist] who gave them those rights back.

Sad thing is, 2nd amendment rights were not restored.
 
humbolt said:
F&L, you're confusing the federal government with the state governments I think, but I won't get into it. Exporting freedom has never been a glamorous or necessarily fruitful enterprise - on that I agree. Having spent some significant time abroad, I can tell you that I was always extremely pleased to arrive back here in the US. Yes, it is home, but we still enjoy more freedoms here than most of the rest of the world. Yes, the pot thing is somewhat extreme here. However, it's important to understand that our laws necessarily lag behind our culture in that regard. That is true in all relatively free countries. As others have noted here, it's only when the majority of the society demands changes to such things that change is effected, and here in the US that change can come slowly by design. And that - the slowness to change - is the reason I mentioned the US is a representative democracy. The Constitution here was designed with that very thing in mind.

I don't think the US these days is a shining example of democracy in action, but we haven't, as a populace, abandoned our commitment. Our government seems to move away from the central ideas, but that's part of the reason the current election is so tumultuous. There really isn't a stunning amount of faith in government here just now, and that's a belief shared by both the political left and right here.
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Ironic, I feel the same sense of freedom when I leave the US and return to Canada.

The last paragraph is an incredible understatement, and unduly kind to the governments you have hired over the last several decades. But, in friendship, have to raise a question mark on whether Americans have abandoned core values. If not, they certainly have allowed some erosion of the edges, while accepting the lowest common denominator as leader.

The fact the two leaders for president are both incredibly shallow and self interested doesn't affirm the idea that voters are any less trusting in assholes
 
beerftw said:
I do not believe the constitution says anywhere that felons lose all rights, and constitution trumps federal law. In my opinion the punishment should fit the crime, and the only constitutional rights that should be stripped from someone are those abused, like people should only lose their right to vote from voter fraud, people should only lose their gun rights for violent felonies, not just any felony, like having pot or knocking over a mailbox.
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I saw an article some time ago about drug crime prisoners and was alarmed to read that a high percentage [i forget the number] of prisoners are in for pot or other minor issues, but because they are a 'felony", they loose their vote for life. What also frightened me was the long terms. I recall one man was caught with a hunting knife and I think an ounce of pot. He got 15 years.

Now that probably pleased a lot of right wing law and order types, however here's what happens. The man has 15 years o learn how to be a better criminal. He will know before his first year his chances of a job when he gets out are zero. He cannot vote and for the rest of his life he will draw the attention of police in any interdiction. There will be made a total disconect from society. If he gets in a fight, the law will tend to lean against him. In short, he will see no other opportunities other than a life of crime. You end up with more crime, not less.

The Harper government here tried to bring in tough on crime measures, longer sentences, and sentences where there had been before, at a time of a plummeting crime rate. They won't see government again for a couple of decades
 
Fearandloathing said:
Ironic, I feel the same sense of freedom when I leave the US and return to Canada.

The last paragraph is an incredible understatement, and unduly kind to the governments you have hired over the last several decades. But, in friendship, have to raise a question mark on whether Americans have abandoned core values. If not, they certainly have allowed some erosion of the edges, while accepting the lowest common denominator as leader.

The fact the two leaders for president are both incredibly shallow and self interested doesn't affirm the idea that voters are any less trusting in assholes
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Oh, I agree. The past few decades of leadership here have been poor. Hopefully, we can turn this around, but with the current crop running I'm not too optimistic, and I'm putting it mildly. We have become a largely self-absorbed nation. We won't last long in such a condition. No nation ever has under such circumstances, and it takes a serious and exemplary leader to change the direction. I don't see that leader right now. I hope I'm proved wrong.
 
humbolt said:
Oh, I agree. The past few decades of leadership here have been poor. Hopefully, we can turn this around, but with the current crop running I'm not too optimistic, and I'm putting it mildly. We have become a largely self-absorbed nation. We won't last long in such a condition. No nation ever has under such circumstances, and it takes a serious and exemplary leader to change the direction. I don't see that leader right now. I hope I'm proved wrong.
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This may seem an around about way of getting to a point, but I watched an early Superman film the other night, then found myself watching Batman vs. Superman [please God do not see this movie, you will encourage the assholes], the later being a new release. Years ago in a college course the name of which long forgotten we studied media as a reflection of an age; i.e. my paper [around 1968] examined "The Honeymooner's" in the context of the age of women's lib.

Likewise, I watched an original Superman, the clean cut, never mean, always reliable image of the "American way of life!" And to a degree it was true, it was the US with Canadian and British backing that created the court structure in the aftermath of WWII, it was the USA that kept West Berliners alive airlifting coal during the Russian blockade. It was that American superhero we see on that screen.

Advance to the present and we find Batman, always an evil-within moral conflict no longer in conflict, but a super hero who brands his captives with the sign of the bat, which we learn is "an automatic death sentence inside", judge, jury and executioner in a cape. But Superman is portrayed as an idiot constantly banging his head against impossible odds, including a cruel bombardment of kryptonite grenades in his face.

It made me wonder about the filmmakers, and the audience they seek, and just how it is the good-guy heroes of my childhood had become growling bullies who wantonly destroy everything around them in a hate filled vengeful battle between the two of them. Is it Hollywood that's ****ed on that, or are they simply reflecting/catering to a predetermined audience?

My motto is "hope for the best, plan for the worst". The biggest hope there is that the people collectively stand up and first recognize that in this day of instant communication the primary system is a handicap and then being steadfast in a demand for electoral reform to actually get the bastards to listen. My fear is that no matter who wins the head butting will simply continue in this fake war of ideologies
 
Can we get back to bashing Terry Mcauliffe now, the asshole swine Governor of Virginia?
 
All felons should have voting rights, even those who haven't served their sentences. Unless your crime amounts to treason, you don't cease to be a citizen of the state equal before the law.

On a side note, you'd hope the decision would dissuade politicians and law enforcement from aggressive, racially-motivated criminal justice practices, though my guess is that they'll get busy trying to circumvent the ruling or devise ever-more nefarious laws and policies to disenfranchise minorities.
 
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It's funny how some conservatives think that felons shouldn't lose their gun rights, but voting rights is okay.
 
HenryChinaski said:
I don't really have an opinion on this, however for those of you that support the decision, what if they're sex offenders?
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Who cares if they are sex offenders? What difference does that make?
 
ToastyOats said:
I support the decision regardless of the felony.

Besides, what kind of sex offender?

Child rape?
Possessing an image of child pornography?
Statuatory between a 16 and 15 year old?
Peeing on the side of the building?
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Don't forget the boobie touch.

Yes, being drunk and touching a 15 year old's boobies is enough to ruin you for life. Thats the story of one person I know's story.

Oh, and the other one I know.... Having oral relations in the front seat of your car at 11pm and being spotted by a child on the 3rd floor balcony of the apartment building you live in. 18yo and 16 yo. Now in their mid 30s, married, and father can never go to see his child's school performances, etc because... SEX OFFENDER!!! OH NOES!!! EVIL!!!!

The sex offender registry was/is the biggest knee jerk reaction fail of modern society.
 
Fenton said:
Dems need all the votes they can get and if they have to give felons their right to vote back, then so be it.
Fortunately for everyone else, felons accout for a slim majority of overall voters

Guess the Democrats will have to continue flooding this Natuon with illegals then
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A your cite for the assertion that felons are democrats AND would vote, if afforded the opportunity?

My guess: more impressions without facts behind them. In other words, ignorance.
 
Caine said:
Don't forget the boobie touch.

Yes, being drunk and touching a 15 year old's boobies is enough to ruin you for life. Thats the story of one person I know's story.

Oh, and the other one I know.... Having oral relations in the front seat of your car at 11pm and being spotted by a child on the 3rd floor balcony of the apartment building you live in. 18yo and 16 yo. Now in their mid 30s, married, and father can never go to see his child's school performances, etc because... SEX OFFENDER!!! OH NOES!!! EVIL!!!!

The sex offender registry was/is the biggest knee jerk reaction fail of modern society.
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Stuff like this makes my head hurt.

Talk to people individually (even most politicians, I'd bet) and pretty much everyone will agree that the guy in the couple you mention shouldn't be on the list, yet no one has the backbone to propose changes because if they do then the next election their opponent will accuse them of being "soft on pedophiles", and the voters will listen only to the sound bite and believe it.

Argh! Makes me want to pull my hair out.
 
Fenton said:
Dems need all the votes they can get and if they have to give felons their right to vote back, then so be it.
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Reps need to block as many votes they can get and if they have to disenfranchise citizens, then so be it.
 
radcen said:
Stuff like this makes my head hurt.

Talk to people individually (even most politicians, I'd bet) and pretty much everyone will agree that the guy in the couple you mention shouldn't be on the list, yet no one has the backbone to propose changes because if they do then the next election their opponent will accuse them of being "soft on pedophiles", and the voters will listen only to the sound bite and believe it.

Argh! Makes me want to pull my hair out.
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And while I don't advocate going around groping on teenage girls, I don't think a guy who touched a willing teenage girls boobs should be punished nearly as harshly as they are punishing people now for mere "touching" of other individuals.

Im not saying everyone should get to do it and it be acceptable, but... years in prison..... years on sex offender registry, years unemployed or working under the table jobs with no benefits because you touched the boob of a girl who was throwing herself on you at a party.
 
Ikari said:
Once the mandated punishment for crimes is completed, including parole/probation, the full of one's rights and liberties should once again be recognized.
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Agreed.
 
99percenter said:
It's funny how some conservatives think that felons shouldn't lose their gun rights, but voting rights is okay.
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It was IIRC F&L that stated words to the efect. once a society starts removing rights, it becomes easier to remove more.
 
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