05/30/13: A long battle for voting rights

This op-ed appeared in The Virginian-Pilot on the date shown.

IN 1997, state Sen. Yvonne B. Miller introduced a proposed constitutional amendment to give the Virginia General Assembly the authority to make laws restoring voting rights for felons. The bill never made it out of the Senate Privileges and Elections committee. Undaunted, she introduced similar bills every legislative session except one through 2012, her last session before she died.

Over the years, the legislation evolved. What started as an attempt to place authority with the General Assembly to restore the rights of all convicted felons wound up being an amendment that would retain the constitutional right of the governor to restore rights for people convicted of violent felonies while allowing the legislature to do the same for those convicted of nonviolent felonies.

The closest Miller ever came to getting the amendment through the legislature was in 2003, when the measure passed both houses. That is not enough to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot, though. To do that, the bill must pass the legislature twice, with a General Assembly election in between.

With 2003 being an election year, the 140 legislators were no doubt thinking about November and how such a vote might appear to voters. After an amendment by the House, where just 29 delegates voted against the bill, the Senate vote was unanimous. Among those in the House who voted in favor was then-delegate, now governor, Bob McDonnell.

Fresh off the 2003 election, the Senate took up the required second passage. The bill passed easily, with just eight votes against. Among the eight nay votes were current Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, current attorney general and gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli and current attorney general candidate Mark Obenshain.

The bill went nowhere in the House of Delegates, though. The Committee on Privileges and Elections killed it. While several of Miller’s subsequent attempts passed the Senate, including the most recent one in 2011, they all met a similar fate in the House.

Fast forward to 2013. Portsmouth Sen. Louise Lucas took up the mantle and introduced SJ 266. The bill followed a familiar pattern: passage in the Senate — with 10 nay votes, including Obenshain — only to die in the House. Separate efforts in the House, which included similar bills introduced by both Republicans and Democrats, failed. Not even the support of McDonnell — and convert Cuccinelli — could persuade the Republican-controlled P&E Committee to advance the legislation.

McDonnell has streamlined the process of restoring voting rights and has restored those rights to 4,843 felons, more than any previous governor. But with an estimated 350,000 Virginians lacking the rights, 4,843 is a mere drop in the bucket.

On Wednesday the governor announced he will automatically restore the rights of those convicted of nonviolent felonies, doing so on an individual basis as the constitution requires. Effective July 15, the new system — eliminating the application process and two-year waiting period — should result in thousands of new voters for this fall’s elections.

The governor’s actions come on the heels of the release of a report, commissioned by Cuccinelli, that looked into options for streamlining the process.

Cuccinelli has had a change of heart on the issue, according to the attorney general’s website, because of “felony creep,” whereby more and more actions are considered felonies.

It matters not how or why people change their minds on issues like this. What matters is they do change.

Many have reported that Sen. Yvonne Miller’s attempts to change the process were not the first; efforts date back at least to 1982. But her sustained effort is unparalleled. Somewhere, she’s smiling at the recent turn of events.