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Ware's resolution would amend the state constitution so that the legislature could set conditions for the restoration of voting and other civil rights for nonviolent felons who have fulfilled their sentencing obligations. Legislation similar to Ware's (Senate Joint Resolution 273) has been endorsed by a Senate committee and will come up for a floor vote next week.

Convicted felons now must appeal to the governor to have their rights restored, a process that civil rights advocates consider arbitrary and cumbersome.

Virginia and Kentucky are the only states that permanently bar convicted felons from voting unless their rights are restored by the governor, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

The House Privileges and Elections Committee defeated Ware's resolution on a 12-10 vote without letting Ware present the legislation and without hearing from people who wanted to testify. The committee was rushing to finish its agenda and adjourn its final scheduled meeting before the House's deadline for completing work on its own bills in this session.

Del. Joseph Morrissey, D-Henrico County, tried to hold off a vote so that the committee could hear testimony on the bill. But the committee's chairman, Del. Mark Cole, R-Fredericksburg, said, "We don't have time for that.

"There was a full hearing held on this resolution at subcommittee," Cole said.

Cole was referring to a seven-member subcommittee that met last month and endorsed Ware's bill on a 4-3 vote. Friday's vote in the full committee broke mostly along party lines, and ended a long meeting in which the committee handled an array of bills dealing with election reforms, gubernatorial appointments and constitutional amendments.

Ware said he did not blame the committee's Republican majority for giving his bill short shrift. He noted that Democrats on the panel helped drag out debates on other bills, leaving little time to discuss his resolution.

Cole later took the House floor to respond to complaints about the committee's handling of bills.

"I tried my best to get through the docket," Cole said. "It's kind of a balancing act between trying to give the bill a fair hearing and trying to get through as many bills as you want. We're not like Washington where we're a full-time legislature and we can take our leisure and make sure we have several hearings on bills."

But advocates for restoring felons' rights were not happy with the committee's action.

"I thought it was rather flip," said Adisa Muse, the director of the Virginia Voter Restoration Project. "It's rather cynical. We're dealing with a serious issue that affects the lives of hundreds of thousands of Virginians."

The issue of restoring felons' voting rights became a political hot potato during last year's presidential election. Republican John McCain's campaign charged that Gov. Tim Kaine was restoring felons' rights at an accelerated clip to influence the Virginia vote, an allegation that Kaine's aides dismissed as a smear tactic.

Ware said his proposed constitutional change would remove the governor from the process, addressing any concerns that politics factor into decisions about restoring rights.

"If ever there was a time to do it, this is the time," Ware said.