Del. Surovell’s new voter drive
By Ken Falkenstein | Saturday, December 31st, 2011 | Policy, PoliticsDelegate Scott Surovell (D-Alexandria) is working hard to register new Democrat voters. From his Facebook page:
Click on the link, and it takes you to a new page on his campaign website that claims that Virginia’s law restricting the voting rights of felons is a holdover from the segregationist Jim Crow era:
Delegate Surovell strongly believes that there should be consequences for the conviction of a felony, but once a person has served their sentence, they should be afforded a second chance and the opportunity to otherwise participate in our community.
In Virginia, once an individual is convicted of a felony, they forfeit many civil rights in Virginia. This prohibition is in the Constitution of Virginia and was added in 1905 in response to significantly increased voter participation by poor whites and African-Americans after the Civil War.
Del. Surovell fails to mention that Virginia’s current Constitution was ratified in 1971, well after the end of the Jim Crow era. So maybe, just maybe, their were other reasons for the people of Virginia to determine that a person forfeits certain of his civil rights when he chooses to commit a felony.
But hey, what’s a little race-baiting between friends when there are new Democrat voters to be had…?
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About the author
Ken Falkenstein has been a staffer in the United States Senate and the Virginia House of Delegates. He has managed political campaigns. He was a military intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army in West Germany during the Cold War. He is currently a civil litigation attorney with Poole Mahoney, P.C. in Virginia Beach. But his concern for his kids' future is what most informs his writing.
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4 Responses to "Del. Surovell’s new voter drive"
Scott and I have discussed this more than once.
I cannot seem to convince him that if the legislature continues to show they’re “tough on crime” by making spitting in the streets a class 3 felony (example, obviously), they’re contributing to the class of people he’ll have to “help” later. (Because government exists to “help” people, dontcha know.)
I know Scott professionally from having been opposite him in a large civil case several years ago (before he was elected to the HoD). My impression of him from that experience is that he’s a good guy notwithstanding our political differences. But the political benefit to him and his party of his Restoration of Rights drive is pretty obvious.
And to think we were on a hot streak of me agreeing with you, Ken – I hate that it had to end so quickly.
I am glad that Scott is taking this on, and I’m proud that Governor McDonnell has restored the rights of more convicted felon in his short time in office so far than Tim Kaine did in his entire four years.
Punishment for most crimes should end when the individual completes his sentence. There’s usually no reason to continue the punishment, unless the crime was something inherently political, like corruption or vote tampering.
I’m sick of the attitude that only Democrats commit felonies, or convicted felons are only going to vote Democratic if their rights are restored. That’s one of those self-fulfilling prophecies that we need to stop feeding. Perhaps if we Republicans treated these folks like human beings and not like lepers, we’d have a chance to win some votes there. People make mistakes. Unless it’s something unforgivable, we should be happy to see these folks want their right to vote back and we should help them. At least they’re taking an active role in Democracy. There are far too many law abiding folks who could care less that they can vote.
Good for Scott and I hope his drive is successful.
Brian- We don’t disagree as much as you think. I think the process that is in place is working, and I have no problem with the way Gov. McDonnell is exercising his discretion.
My point is that Scott put this on his CAMPAIGN website, and he falsely stated that the existing system is rooted in racism. By so doing, he made it political, and it is transparently for the purpose of creating new voters for himself and his party.
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