Gov. Terry McAuliffe, D-Va., refuted Republicans’ accusations that he gave 200,000 convicted felons the right to vote for his personal political gain.
The first-term governor and long-time friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton told PBS News the executive order announced Friday was about doing the “morally right thing,” not political opportunism or helping the Democratic front-runner in the presidential election.
“Let me be very clear, if I were to do it for political purposes I would have done it last year before my entire 140-member of the General Assembly. I worked very hard to win one Senate seat to get control of the Senate,” McAuliffe told PBS host Judy Woodruff.
“First of all let me be very clear, Hillary Clinton doesn’t need this. She’s gonna win Virginia, she’s gonna beat Donald Trump,” McAuliffe added. “So put the politics aside and it’s really unfortunate these Republicans always default to partisan politics.”
The move will give 206,000 nonviolent and violent former offenders the right to vote after they have completed their sentence as well as probation or parole.
McAuliffe has previously restored voting rights for 18,000 felons since taking office, but Friday’s announcement will clear all others. It does not give those rights to future felons.
