Eric Holder Backs Restoration Of Voting Rights For Former Felons

[UCmeNdc]

WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Eric Holder is putting the weight of the Obama administration behind restoring voting rights to former felons, calling laws that disenfranchise millions of Americans "unnecessary and unjust," and saying they are rooted in "centuries-old conceptions of justice that were too often based on exclusion, animus, and fear."

Holder, who has made criminal justice reform a central focus of his over the past several months, said the policies had a disparate impact on minority communities and echoed those enacted during the post-Civil War era.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/11/eric-holder-felon-voting_n_4762863.html

[UCmeNdc]

1. I agree with this.

People should have their constitutional rights restored after serving their punishment.

[ancianita]

2. I agree with it, too, but good luck on 50 different state judicial/legislative systems' support.

They have too much political conflict of interest to follow Holder's lead.

[Xyzse]

3. I have to agree with this.

I mean, once a person has done their time, the assumption is that they have gone through and paid their dues.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

4. I agree and glad to see they are making an issue of this

I've never really understood why people don't automatically get their voting rights restored after being imprisoned- or, really, why they lose them in the first place. I've never actually even understood how removing voting privileges is even constitutional.

[arcane1]

10. Same here, I think it's strange that voting rights can be simply taken away.

I'm sure there is nothing about race relations involved in that.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

11. Riiiiiiight

Hear no evil, see no evil.............

[jenmito]

5. I don't understand why, when people FINISH their jail time and rejoin the free world, they

DON'T get to vote (except it's more voter suppression from Rs who are afraid they'd vote D).

[Lars Becker]

6. No Taxatio without Representation?

Can I say something about voting rights even that I live I Denmark, Europe? hattip:
Well here Goes:
Here in Denmark we basically only take away the Freedom from those who has been sentenced a Prison Punishment by a Judge...
And I wonder about the lost Voting Right, does that Mean that this Person does it not have to pay taxes? I think of what they said Way back in the Start of The American Revolution: "No Taxation Without Representation"
Thank You!

[bemildred]

7. Attaboy, Eric. nt

[struggle4progress]

8. Here's some info on this. Currently eleven (11) states --

Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nevada, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wyoming -- may permanently eliminate voting rights after some felony convictions. At the opposite end of the spectrum, felons in Maine and Vermont do not lose their vote, even while incarcerated. The remaining thirty-seven (37) allow restoration of voting rights -- though in Virginia violent felons cannot vote for at least five years after sentence completion and thereafter must apply to the governor for restoration of those rights; and in Nebraska voting rights are not automatically restored until two years after sentence completion

http://felonvoting.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000286
https://www.aclu.org/maps/map-state-criminal-disfranchisement-laws

The legends on the map may be somewhat misleading: the situation with misdemeanants may vary, and in NC or PA (for example) currently being imprisoned for a misdemeanor does not prevent one from voting, even though the legends indicate "People in prison cannot vote"

[playthegame]

9. Do the crime pay the time... but you shouldn't have to pay for the rest of your life.

So a felon can get rehabilitated, become a productive member of society, but still can't vote.

I guess Republicans never made any mistakes in their lives? LOL.

[fizzgig]

12. as it should be

but i was confused as hell at first because i initially read that as eric cantor.