RICHMOND, VA — Election Day is usually not a proud day for Wilbur Scott*. In past years, the 66-year-old ex-felon used to loiter around his local polling place and hope that someone would drop their “I Voted!” sticker on the ground. If they did, he’d pick it up, stick it to his own lapel, and wear it home to casually show his three young daughters.
To this day, Scott’s daughters — now in their late thirties and forties — don’t know about their father’s criminal past. But Scott doesn’t have to hunt around for a sticker to fool them anymore. Thanks to reforms announced by Gov. Terry McAuliffe last year and this summer, Scott was able to vote on Tuesday, approximately 45 years after serving a 15-month sentence for a statutory burglary conviction in 1970.
“When I received this letter [restoring my right to vote], it brought tears to my eyes,” Scott told ThinkProgress in Richmond on Tuesday. “It made me whole again.”
Before McAuliffe’s reforms, felons in Virginia had a particularly hard time becoming full citizens after their convictions. In most states, voting rights are automatically restored once a felon is released from prison. But in Virginia, felons were required to first get off parole or probation, then file a voting rights restoration application with the governor’s office, a process that was supposed to take 45 to 60 days but often took much longer. Violent offenders were forced to wait five years to apply for voting rights. And all ex-felons had to pay off all their court-ordered restitution and court fees before they could be granted the right to vote.
McAuliffe sought to loosen those restrictions. In April of 2014, he announced that ex-felons with drug offenses would immediately have their voting rights restored — no application necessary. People who committed violent felonies would have their waiting period reduced from five years to three. And this summer, the Democratic governor announced that Virginia would no longer require ex-felons to pay off all their court fees before having their voting rights restored.
“For them to know that I didn’t follow the rules and wasn’t forgiven … It’s very hurtful.”
This summer’s announcement is what ultimately led to Scott getting to vote on Tuesday. He insists he paid his restitution and court fees soon after being released from prison in 1971. But because he had multiple parole officers, his paperwork got lost. He refused to pay his restitution twice, so he never received the right to vote.
“Trying to make me pay these court fines, restitution — it’s no more than a poll tax to keep you from voting,” he said.
Scott filed his application for voting rights soon after McAuliffe’s announcement, and got his letter restoring his right to vote, “Just like that,” he said, snapping his fingers. The swiftness caused him to reflect on the decades he spent hiding his past from friends, family, and employers, scared that his community would be afraid of him, or that his daughters would be ashamed.
“I taught them to follow the rules,” he said. “For them to know that I didn’t follow the rules and wasn’t forgiven … It’s very hurtful.”
Though Scott hid his past from most, he did have help from one person: Richard Walker. Walker is the founder of Bridging the Gap, a grassroots nonprofit that helps ex-convicts overcome barriers that prevent them from becoming fully active citizens.
Since Walker himself was released from prison in 2012, he estimates he’s helped anywhere from 4,000 to 5,000 ex-felons restore their civil rights in Virginia. Since McAuliffe’s reforms were announced last year, he said it’s become much easier. The entire paperwork process for restoration of rights has changed, he said — from 13 pages for violent offenses and 2 pages for non-violent offenses down to one page for each. “It’s all been streamlined,” he said.
Walker estimates he’s helped anywhere from 4,000 to 5,000 ex-felons restore their civil rights in Virginia.
Violent offenders in Virginia still have to get a copy on their sentencing order and a letter from their probation officer when they complete a supervision in order to gain the right to vote. And non-violent offenders still have to provide their basic information. But Walker said he’s the busiest he’s ever been since the reforms were announced.
“My phone is constantly ringing,” he told ThinkProgress, about 30 seconds before his phone rang with a call from a woman seeking help finding a job for her ex-felon fiancé.
Another person Walker helped to restore voting rights to is Raheem Muhammad, 41, who was released from prison in 2003 but just received his restoration letter one week ago. He barely missed the deadline to vote in this election, but will be eligible to cast his ballot in the 2016 presidential election. Since he was sent to prison when he was 17 years old, it will be the first time he has voted in his life.
“Now that I have my rights restored, knowing that I have a voice — I feel honored,” he told ThinkProgress. “I know I missed the deadline for this election but I can’t wait until the presidential election.”
Muhammad’s situation — being a middle-aged man and never having had the right to vote in his life — is not uncommon among ex-felons in Virginia, many of whom were convicted either before they became politically active or before they were old enough to vote.
Clarence Woodson Bey was one of those people until last year, when he voted for the first time at the age of 63. ThinkProgress accompanied Woodson Bey to the polls last year and this year, his second-ever time voting. Since his first vote, Woodson Bey said he was so inspired that he spent the year going into his community, finding other ex-felons, and helping them regain the right to vote.
So far, Woodson Bey estimates he’s helped 12 people get restoration of rights letters this year — and he considers it his personal responsibility to do more.
“How do you expect there will be change if you don’t do your part? My part is assisting with that, because I myself have done that,” he said. “For me, this is my second time of voting. And I don’t know how you feel about that, but I feel marvelous.”
*Name has been changed at his request