Richmond, VA - New Virginia Majority issued the following statement on Senator Norment's Proposed Constitutional Amendment: This is not the time for Republicans to pick and choose which voting-age adults get to have a voice, and which do not. 

The time for that was in the Jim Crow era when racist power structures sought to keep people of color out of power. People who have served their sentences and completed all the requirements of probation and parole shouldn’t be punished for life. They have already been before a judge and a jury. The disenfranchisement of people who have already served sentences for prior mistakes is an outdated, discriminatory vestige of our nation’s Jim Crow past. To keep imposing a sentence on them is not justice, it’s retribution. Adding insult to injury, the fines, fees and restitution amount to a modern-day poll tax.

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New Virginia Majority builds power in working-class communities of color across the Commonwealth. We organize for racial and economic justice through large-scale political education, mobilization, and advocacy around dozens of issues. We fight for a Virginia that is just, democratic, and environmentally sustainable.