PETERSBURG, Va. - Church leaders and civil rights groups rallied on Saturday in Petersburg, asking Gov. Tim Kaine to restore the rights of felons before he leaves office in January.

Pamela Nicholas became a felon after incurring three misdemeanors for shoplifting. Nicholas acknowledges that some would say she gave up her rights when she committed the crimes, but she notes that they occurred more than ten years ago and says she has atoned.

"You can't be punished always in life, and I tell them that, well, God has forgiven me and washed my sins of all of it. You know, I don't really worry what a lot of people say. I just gotta keep believing in me and goin' forward."

Nicholas says a restoration of her rights would mean she wouldn't have to note that she's a felon on job applications, she would be allowed to serve on a jury, and she could vote. She tried an individual appeal to the governor last year because she desperately wanted to vote for America's first Black president, she says.

"Always in my heart I really wanted to vote, and I was very hurt and disappointed when I couldn't vote in the Obama race. I was all motivated, I was energetic and ready to go, and I got everything done. Then within a month they sent back a denial letter."

Nicholas says no reason was given for the denial. Gov. Kaine is a former civil rights lawyer; while in office, he has restored the rights of more than 4,000 felons - more than any other previous Virginia governor.

The Virginia Organizing Project organized the Saturday rally. Virginia and Kentucky are the only two states that permanently strip felons of civil rights such as voting, serving on juries or holding public office. An estimated 300,000 Virginians like Nicholas would benefit from an executive order restoring their rights.

More information is available by calling the Virginia Organizing Project, 202-470-5878.




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While the Pennsylvania House is still out of session and won't resume until late February, the public and advocacy groups are voicing their concerns.

A statewide listening tour was organized by state House Speaker Mark Rozzi - D-Berks - and his six-member workgroup, to hear from Pennsylvanian about ways to move the state forward on legislative rules.

Fair Districts PA Chair Carol Kuniholm said she spoke about the state Legislature not passing bipartisan solutions. Her group recommends that legislative leaders put rules in place that allow bills with clear bipartisan support to get a vote in committee.

"And then if they are voted out of one chamber with bipartisan support, they should be given a vote in the other chamber," said Kuniholm. "Because what we're seeing is only about one in five bills get considered in committee. Half the bills that get voted out of one chamber are ignored by the other chamber and only about 7% of bills introduced actually get passed."

Fair Districts PA's most recent report shows during the session, members of both political parties signed on as co-sponsors of many bills affecting both rural and urban Pennsylvanians.

Kuniholm added that, however, many of the bills never received votes to move out of committee.

Kuniholm said she and others spoke about bills to address the lack of funding and staffing for firefighters since the 1970s. She added that for two decades, there have been legislative solutions to address the lack of broadband access in rural communities.

She said her organization has been trying to get redistricting reform bills passed, but the leadership has blocked those - even though some have had more co-sponsors than any other bills in the chamber.

"Many people talked about the sexual-abuse statute limitations bill that has been bundled into a constitutional amendment," said Kuniholm. "There were firefighters who talked about the concern for remedies for firefighters, there were people who talked about school funding, and quite a few people talked about gun violence."

Kuniholm said they recommend that there would be a discharge petition, which means if a bill is stuck in committee and has a certain number of signatures, that bill would move directly to the House floor for a vote.

She said a proposal that they put forward is that every legislator would be able to have one priority bill that if they could get at least five co-sponsors from both parties, that bill would be guaranteed a vote.

A Republican-sponsored bill in the Arkansas Legislature would make it illegal to circulate petitions at or near polling places during elections.

House Bill 1025 would amend the state law about circulating petitions to limit signature-gathering within 100 feet of the primary entrance to a polling place. The bill is co-sponsored by Rep. David Ray, R-Maumelle, and Sen. Mark Johnson, R-Little Rock.

Bonnie Miller, president of the League of Women Voters of Arkansas, said the bill appears to be a remedy in search of a problem. She said there haven't been any issues around circulating petitions as people are voting.

"This is his next attempt to try to make the people's constitutional right to direct democracy in Arkansas much more difficult," she said. "We, the League of Women Voters, we believe that it is an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment, of our right to free speech, and to petition."

Miller said the 100-foot limit that currently exists is for candidates, to prohibit what's known as electioneering. She said voters circulating a petition are not the same thing. When Arkansans vote in a general election, she said, any issue would have already gone through a rigorous process to get onto the ballot - so there would be no reason to circulate petitions or gather signatures at a voting location. She contended that this may be another way to intimidate groups or chip away at the democratic process.

"It's not really something that happens already, because the timing just doesn't make sense with elections, and direct democracy, the whole process," she said. "I don't understand the reasoning behind this bill, except for just continue to attack it, in whatever way that they can."

It's unknown whether HB 1025 has bipartisan support, as it is newly introduced.

Support for this reporting was provided by Carnegie Corp. of New York.

According to AmeriCorps' latest research, Utah was the state with the highest number of residents volunteering with nonprofits in their communities from September 2020 through 2021.

Michael Smith, CEO of AmeriCorps, said those in the Beehive State and across the country had to find innovative ways to give back to their communities during the height of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the data, about 40% of Utahns regularly volunteered with nonprofit organizations, which classifies as formal volunteering. Smith pointed out the number jumped to 61% when looking at how people from Utah helped in informal ways, such as doing favors for neighbors.

"To put that in context, we got 23% for formal and 51% for informal," Smith reported. "Those rates were pretty high, and it shows why we need to do this research. We need to study what was happening. What was the secret sauce?"

The research is conducted every two years in a joint effort between AmeriCorps and the U.S. Census Bureau.

Smith emphasized the research showed cause for concern and celebration. For the first time since the agencies started tracking the data in 2002, there was a 7% dip in the number of Americans engaging in formal volunteering. He added informal help remained strong and steady.

Smith admitted he was a bit nervous in receiving the numbers from the latest research, since he knew the COVID-19 pandemic would likely mean many were not able to volunteer as in previous years. He explained AmeriCorps was not shocked to see a dip in formal volunteering, but it was greater than expected.

At the same time, he added he was pleased to see when the going got tough, Americans really showed up for one another.

"We saw neighbors creating learning pods so that children of first responders could have a place to go and learn in a safe place," Smith recounted. "We saw folks saying 'I'm going to the grocery store. Anyone who can't get out to the grocery store in my apartment building, I'll go and get that done.' "

Smith hopes formal volunteering will rise again, but stressed AmeriCorps will be looking at ways to remove barriers to get even more Americans volunteering and civically engaged. He noted the need for volunteers within nonprofits is at an all-time high, which can also become a pipeline for employees in the social sector.