Virginia's archaic system for restoring voting rights to ex-felons

The Sentencing Project 

The good news: Gov. Robert F. McDonnell is restoring voting privileges to ex-inmates faster than his predecessors did. Now the bad news: With the exception of Florida, Virginia has the nation’s worst record when it comes to disenfranchising its citizens. It’s also racially skewed. Because African Americans and other minorities are overrepresented in prison populations, they are disproportionately disenfranchised in Virginia and other states where voting rights are not restored promptly, universally or automatically. In Virginia, more than 1 in 5 African Americans is disenfranchised, according to a report, State-Level Estimates of Felon Disenfranchisement in the United States, 2010, by The Sentencing Project.