Delegate 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…?
