Gents,
You have to look at this in the whole context of what is going on around the country. Before today, I was under the impression that
around the US, if you were a felon, you could not vote.
After some brief research, I surprisingly found that this is not the case; not by a long shot.
Pretty much every state allows felons to vote after they either have served a complete sentence, or,
are simply out of prison (parole, commuted sentence, etc).
Shockingly, Maine allows persons still IN prison to vote (via absentee ballot).
Texas, Georgia, Alabama (states that one would consider 'Hard Core' on crime) all allow former felons to vote.
Kentucky has the most difficult circumstance to regain suffrage: They require an individual petition to the
Governor to regain their voting rights.
So, (In my opinion), Virginia is just the "Johnny come lately" in the case of restoring voting rights for felons.
I could not care either way.