Another Bad Week for Terry McAuliffe’s Felon Voting Order

With less than a week left until the Virginia Supreme Court takes up the legal challenge to Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s executive action that gave 206,000 felons their voting rights, damning revelations about the people who had their rights restored and the nature in which the action was carried out continue to pile up.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that two fugitive sex offenders who have been convicted of violent acts toward minors were among the felons included in McAuliffe’s executive action.

James A. Hyams, 42, was convicted in Kentucky for raping a minor in 2000. Hyams was released but violated his parole in Virginia by committing grand larceny in 2012. He pleaded guilty to the charge but fled the state and was locked up in a New York prison. Vashawn L. Gray, 30, was convicted in Virginia for aggravated sexual battery of a minor in 2004 and has failed to register as a sex offender. His “whereabouts are unknown,” according to his probation officer.

Both men are listed as “wanted” by the state sex offender registry, yet both also appear on the long list of felons who not only had their voting rights restored, but also their rights to serve on a jury, hold public office, and petition to have their gun rights restored.

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