“Two weeks ago, Terry McAuliffe, the governor of Virginia, issued an executive order that restored the vote to two hundred and six thousand people who have completed prison sentences and probation or parole for a felony conviction. The move was rightly hailed as a milestone for the state. The Governor effectively overrode a provision in Virginia’s Constitution from the post-Civil War period which was meant to disenfranchise African-Americans. In 2010, according to the Sentencing Project, one of every five black voters in the state had lost the right to vote, one of the highest rates of disenfranchisement in the country.”