RICHMOND, Va. — More than 200,000 convicted felons will be able to cast ballots in the swing state of Virginia in November under a sweeping executive order Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced Friday.
The Democrat said restoring the rights of felons to vote and run for office will help undo the state's long history of trying to prevent African-Americans from fully participating in democracy.
"This is the essence of our democracy, and any effort to dilute that fundamental principle diminishes it, for all of us," McAuliffe said on the steps of Virginia's Capitol before a crowd of more than 100 people that included many felons.
The governor's order enables every Virginia felon to vote, run for public office, and serve on a jury if they have completed their sentence and finished any supervised release, parole or probation requirements as of April 22. The administration estimates this population includes about 206,000 people.
Republicans called the order a bald-faced political move by McAuliffe — a close friend of Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton — to help his party hold onto the White House. They said ex-offenders who committed violent crimes, like murder, should not be allowed to vote or have other civil rights restored.
Nationwide, nearly 6 million Americans are barred from voting because of laws disenfranchising felons, according to the Washington-based Sentencing Project. Virginia, Iowa, Kentucky and Florida are the only states that still remove voting rights for felons for life unless a state official restores them.
Such policies make black Americans of voting age four times more likely to lose their voting rights than the rest of the adult population. Virginia is among three states where more than one in five black adults have lost their voting rights, according to a Sentencing Project report.