By Julian Walker
The Virginian-Pilot
Officials in Gov. Bob McDonnell’s administration expect to meet soon with advocates who are concerned about their plan to ask nonviolent felons to submit a personal letter as part of an application seeking the restoration of their voting rights.
The meeting, which officials said they’d previously planned, comes after published reports about a new policy requiring that individuals who file papers to regain their voting rights submit a written letter as a component of the application.
It is unclear when the meeting will occur, but ACLU of Virginia executive director Kent Willis said Monday that he had been contacted about it.
Critics of the letter-writing concept have said it is reminiscent of literacy tests once conducted at polls to bar minorities from voting.
But McDonnell administration officials said that isn’t the case.
What’s being requested isn’t a complex essay, said Commonwealth Secretary Janet Polarek, adding that it is similar to the requirement that previously has been a component of the rights-restoration application for violent felons.
Polarek said McDonnell’s aim is to have all rights-restoration requests processed within 90 days of their receipt, and the personal letter is one way to help officials assess each applicant, not penalize them.
She said that McDonnell believes in “grace and second chances.”
“We expect that if you have paid your debt to society, getting your rights back is the rule not the exception,” she said.
Copyright 2010 Landmark Communications, Inc.