Delegate Cory McCray cosponsored the push to expand felon voting rights.
Expanded voting rights for felons was among the bills Gov. Larry Hogan (R) vetoed after it successfully made its way through the Maryland General Assembly last session. However, its two sponsors are vowing to keep up the fight and work to overturn the governor’s decision.
The push to expand felon voting rights was sponsored by Sen. Joan Conway (D-Baltimore City) in the Senate and Delegate Cory McCray (D-Baltimore City) in the House. Senate Bill 340 managed to successfully navigate the 2015 legislative session and pass the General Assembly, but was vetoed by Hogan on May 22, just weeks after rioting in Baltimore had seemed to make clear the need for more members of the community to be heard in decisions that affect their lives.
For McCray, Hogan’s veto flew in the face of much of the political rhetoric that accompanied the weeks of unrest in Baltimore.
“ came through (during the unrest), he played basketball at our local courts, he attended a lot of different church services, he looked towards the community to say ‘I’m here to help,’ and one of the best ways he could’ve helped was giving a person a voice in their community to deal with challenges with housing, deal with challenges with unemployment, deal with challenges with not having access to food, and what way to deal with challenges through policy?” said McCray.
And though the law was met with the governor’s veto pen, both McCray and Conway say the fight is not over. For McCray, the same people who helped pass the bill must now mobilize to overturn the veto.
“I think it takes (House and Senate) leadership, but it also takes ex-offenders within those communities that have high ex-offender populations, the has to be back involved, the Maryland Working Families, the Communities United, Sen. Conway, myself, so many people that were instrumental in getting this over the hump, we have to make sure that we’re on the 10 yard line and try our best to get it over the goal line,” said McCray.
For her part, Conway says she has already begun working to pick up the remaining votes she needs to overturn the veto (two in the senate and three in the house, she says).
“From the time that the bill passed, I didn’t think that the governor would sign it so I’ve been working actively to override that veto,” said Conway.
While not many additional votes are needed, the General Assembly will have to wait until the start of the next session in Jan. 2016 to attempt to override the veto. Overriding a veto requires a three-fifths majority in both houses, according to the Maryland General Assembly website.
If Hogan’s veto is overturned, approximately 40,000 Marylanders will see their franchise rights restored, according to the ACLU Maryland.
ralejandro@afro.com