The governor of Virginia and the President of the US have one thing in common - they are both creating a class of voters from criminal elements in prisons. It must sound strange to anyone not in the US, but the President has just set a record for the number of prisoners who have had their sentences commuted. These 500 prisoners and their families will assuredly be voting if they can get their registrations completed in time. They will need help with that.
The governmor of Virginia tried to give some 200,000 parolees and ex prisoners the right to vote, but was taken down by the Supreme Court of Virginia which pointed out that this violated the State Constitution which required the hearings be done on a case-by-case basis. He said to line them up and he would sign them.
Neither one of these two has ever been in a prison for very long, nor understands what kinds of people are in prisons. A person almost never goes to prison the first time they commit an offense, aside from murder. I might argue that most murderers will not commit the crime again, and might benefit from this release and voter registration. Drug dealers, pimps, extortionists, thieves and other forms of multiple offenders make up the biggest part of the population. Many of these guys and gals are career criminals. They are not going to stop committing crimes when they are released, but they will be more careful about getting caught. The governor and the President will not be touched by any of them, but someone will be. I hope they remember who released these folks on the population.
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