“I don’t care what their politics are,” McAuliffe said in an interview Thursday while visiting the Dan River Region for an economic announcement. “I want them to vote.”
McAuliffe also countered the notion that his executive order was to earn Democratic voters or score political points — he said he wanted to help erase part of the commonwealth’s racist past.
State Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Moneta, said he largely agreed with what McAuliffe’s actions had accomplished, voicing his support for an automatic restoration of rights for most ex-offenders.
“We are a nation of second chances,” Stanley said. “When you look at it individually, humans make mistakes.”
He also said he would change the part of Norment’s proposal limiting restoration to non-violent felons, explaining that the list of violent felonies included many not traditionally seen as violent.
The ex-offenders, along with the rest of Virginia citizens, have until Oct. 17 to complete their registrations. More information is available at Virginia’s Restoration of Rights website.
“We constantly expand that list and sometimes, I think, without justification,” he said. “We can’t make every human action a crime.”
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