Thanks To Virginia Voting Reforms, These Felons Are Voting For The First Time In Years

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.