AP Photo McAuliffe to GOP: 'Quit complaining' and earn ex-felons' vote

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe dismissed on Sunday the notion that his executive order restoring the voting rights of 206,000 ex-felons represents an election-year ploy to help elect a Democrat to the White House. His message for Republicans in an interview with ABC's "This Week": Complain less, campaign more.

McAuliffe's order signed last Friday reversed more than 150 years of state law that stripped convicted felons who have served their time of the right to vote, the majority of which are African-American and have traditionally represented a large voting bloc of the modern Democratic Party.


As he did in Richmond late last week, when he declared that the law did not overstep his constitutional authority, McAuliffe on Sunday said the restoration would represent an opportunity for all politicians and parties to earn the support of the previously disenfranchised group.

"Well, I would tell the Republicans quit complaining and go out and earn these folks' right to vote for you. Go out and talk to them," the Democratic governor told George Stephanopoulos. "I find it very—and in fact, I think some of the language that has come out of the Republicans, I would tell them to be very careful at how they frame this, very careful of their rhetoric."

Republicans, he continued, "have an opportunity to go out and get these individual new voters to vote for them. But make your argument."

"These are the same legislators, George, that, just in this session, sent me a bill to sign that would have been very similar to North Carolina, religious freedom bill, that would have rolled back the rights and given protections to those who didn't discriminate against LGBT members," he said. "They sent me a bill that would have defunded parts of Planned Parenthood. This is the same group of individuals several years ago passed the transvaginal ultrasound against women."

He concluded, "Let's let people back in. Second chances matter. They served their time, they're in our communities—why not let them vote? I don't understand. I'm not giving you gun rights back. I'm not reducing your sentence. I'm merely saying after you have served your time, and your probation or parole are all over, determined by a judge and jury, I want you feeling good about yourself. I want you voting."