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No other democratic
country in the world denies as many people - in absolute or
proportionate terms - the right to vote because of prior felony
convictions. The extent of disenfranchisement is even more
disturbing given that the right to vote can be lost for relatively
minor offenses such as shoplifting. In the states that
disenfranchise ex-felons, an eighteen-year-old first-time offender
who receives probation upon conviction for a single sale of drugs
faces a lifetime of disenfranchisement.
Disenfranchisement laws are a vestige of medieval times when
offenders were banished from the community and suffered "civil
death." Brought from Europe to the colonies, they gained new
political salience at the end of the nineteenth century when
disgruntled whites in many Southern states adopted them and other
ostensibly race-neutral voting restrictions in an effort to exclude
blacks from the vote.
The racial impact of
disenfranchisement laws is particularly troubling. In seven states,
at least one in four black men are disenfranchised as an ex-felon.
In Florida and Alabama, the number soars to one in three. Given
current rates of incarceration, 40 percent of the next generation of
African American men is likely to be permanently disenfranchised
State laws that govern
voting in federal as well as state elections form of national
"crazy-quilt." The right to vote in federal elections is thus
subject to the arbitrary accidents of geography. A person convicted
of theft in New Jersey, for example, automatically regains the right
to vote after release from prison, while a person convicted of the
same crime in New Mexico is denied the vote forever unless a pardon
can be secured from the state governor.
The disenfranchisement of ex-felons serves no discernible legitimate
purpose. To the contrary, it arbitrarily denies ex-offenders the
ability to vote regardless of the nature of their crimes or the
severity of their sentences. It distorts the country's electoral
process and diminishes the black vote, countering decades of voting
rights gains. (Extracts from Human Rights Watch Letters (05/23/01)
to US Senator Robert G. Torricelli , Mitch McConnell , Charles
Schumer and Sam Brownback)
Since the U.S. Supreme
Court has just recently refused to hear the argument, it’s clear to
me that federal legislation is necessary in order to restore this
injustice. When elected I plan on introducing a new bill that would
do just that. Although the bill would restore the Right to Vote to
all felons, I believe it will have little effect because the
majority of those convicted of a felony would most likely not
exercise that Right. On the other hand; those that do, would most
likely make excellent and concerned citizens who have re-conformed
to society.
Lucky
for me my offense occurred in California, a state that
automatically restores civil rights
upon completion of one's sentence. For the last several years I've
been both eligible to vote as well as run for any political office.
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