Why shouldn't ex-felons be allowed to vote?

[bleedingheart]

I just don't get it. The christian right likes to blather on about values but why can't a person who has paid their debt to society vote?

Let's think about this, when a felon is released from prison the greatest hope we can have is that they get a job, pay their taxes and make a better life for themselves. Why not allow them to vote?

It is just an outrage and the stupidest part is that republicans are arguing about keeping felons from voting but where is the outrage and marches to put an end to this stupid practice??????

I read somewhere that Coretta King spoke about this issue but to be honest I think that back in 2000 when this issue came out we should have worked to have eliminated the idea of purging anyone from the voter rolls unless they moved or died.

[HEyHEY]

1. BEcause a large number of them aren't white silly!

[bleedingheart]

3. I realize that may be the case but all the more reason to get rid of

this "Jim Crow" like practice...

[Skittles]

5. they certainly would be if they hammered on Ken Lays

the way they hammer on other crimes

[DuctapeFatwa]

6. You snatched the words right off my fingers. You must have DSL.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. Uhhhh..... do they tend to vote the Dem candidate??? n/t

[specter]

15. Does

it matter?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

31. It shouldn't but it might..... but this article explains that they

might tend to be democrats... and how convenient is it that they are targeted by the voting system??? Whom is it convenient for??

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9785-2004Aug17.html
>>On Election Day it will not matter to some 4.7 million Americans whether they are Republicans, Democrats, independents or whether they have an opinion on anything at all. Under various state laws, they are barred from voting because they have felony records. This includes not just prison inmates (48 states), parolees (33 states) and probationers (29 states) but also a large number of people -- one third of the disenfranchised in all -- who are off parole and "free." Minorities are hit particularly hard by these state laws: They deny 13 percent of African American men the vote.<<



http://slate.msn.com/id/2105524/
>>Gov. Bush's own task force on the 2000 election recommended that the Legislature change county election supervisors from elected to nonpartisan positions. But the Legislature did not act on this recommendation, nor on the suggestion of election reform groups that the secretary of state also be selected by a nonpartisan commission, to ensure the necessary firewall between election officials and politicians.<<

[dogtag]

4. I really don't see why convicted felons serving their time

should be denied their right to vote. Losing your liberty is sufficient, IMO.

[bleedingheart]

7. that is also a very good point!

and they are often affected by who is elected to office.

[dogtag]

9. Yep, And it eliminates the entire felon rolls thingie!

[bleedingheart]

14. technically it would be a cost savings as well because any of these

stupid systems costs more to maintain than just letting everyone vote.
Florida paid a lot of money to "scrub" their voter rolls...eliminating that "scrubbing" would save money

[Hoffnung]

8. Just seems like an open door for coercion and corruption

Whats stopping a warden from threatening prisoners into voting for a particular candidate?

[dogtag]

10. Like fundie ministers?

[Hoffnung]

13. Not really

Because people who go to those churches do it by free will oppose to someone locked up in prison they don't have any freedom.

[bleedingheart]

17. they still have free will and to be honest there are a lot of church goers

that lack free will...

[Hoffnung]

19. "a lot of church goers that lack free will"

Comparing prisoner to some mindless church goer who chooses to believe the crap that is being feed to him/her is an insult to... well prisoners and again church goers are not held behind steel bars with limited and closely filtered contact with the outside world.

[ulysses]

23. *ex*-felons

not those currently serving time.

[specter]

11. Well

let me tell you im a felon and its bullshit that Ive done my time and cant do the things that my taxes pay for, like vote, get subsidized housing. Yeah I made a mistake and I payed for it dearly, no one is perfect look at the 5 million disenfranchised voters in this country and growing. Soon as they say in prison, there will only be prisoners and guards in this country.

[ihaveaquestion]

12. It started in the South as part of the Jim Crow laws

More blacks were felons, due to the inequities of the justice system (what an understatement, sheesh!) and keeping felons from voting kept blacks from voting.

In Florida, felons can regain their voting rights via a petition process. I don't know how hard/easy this is to actually do and given the felon-voter-purge craze started in FL, felons who regain their voting rights might still be turned away.

The situation may still boil down to - the state gets to make a mistake, turn a voter away and then say later "Opps, my bad, you were really supposed to be able to vote a week/month/whatever ago."

I think this is just one of the ways repukes are counting on to reduce democratic voters little by little.

[scottxyz]

16. I think people should be allowed to vote IN JAIL

With the lockup rate in America one of the highest in the world, I think people in jail also have a right to participate in their government.

[bleedingheart]

18. dogtag mentioned that as well and I think it is a great point.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

26. They are allowed to vote in jail.

I think only the people in jail on felony charges are denied the right to vote. I remember some group went to the Orange County (FL) jail to register new voters.

[George_S]

27. They are counted in the census

And the counties make big bucks off of that. So maybe they shouldn't count unless able to vote.

edit: fixed typo

[catmandu57]

20. It's not the same in all states

Here in misery, if you've completed your sentence then your voting rights are restored.
There are however, other serious impediments to having a felony conviction on ones record.

[Sinnerman]

21. I think everyone should be able to vote

1 man 1 vote,

[Gyre]

22. They're persona non grata politically

because they've seriously broken society's rules; for that reason it makes sense to me. Once they're off parole they can vote again. What's the problem? Consequences? They've earned them.

Flame on!:)

Gyre

[Patiod]

25. Problem: Some states don't EVER allow them to vote again

Even after they've served all their time/parole is over.

[one_true_leroy]

24. think about it...

make a law to marginalize certain populations, then don't let them vote after they serve time. marijuana entrepreneurs (mostly lower class, non-repubs) are a good example. tend to be liberal, so it's easy to want them disenfranchised (assuming you're a 'law 'n order, boots 'n spurs' politico). no-one who goes to prison is going to vote for the people who put them in jail, so you don't want them voting for the other guy when they get out. you get them outta the way for 5-15 years (what's it, something like 1.8million non-violent offenders in prison now... 1/3 black males ages 18-40 incarcerated, or on parole/probation?) then they are no longer any threat politically. it's an easily digested form of poll tax/ loyalty oath/ voter qualification, and the zinger is that if you argue against it, you're labeled soft on crime.

[lastliberalintexas]

28. Because Tom Delay will one day

be an ex-felon. Why would you ever want someone like that to have access to the ballot box? ;-)



All kidding aside, this is just one of many means used to disenfranchise the poor and minorities in our country- who are disproportionally represented in that particular population. The poor and minorites are more likely to be charged with these types of crimes and more likely to plea bargain for reduced sentences (whether they have a good lawyer or not, they are still likely to be forced to do so).

Remember, possession of powder cocaine (the drug of choice of rich white yuppies) carries a lesser *mandatory* sentence than that imposed on crack cocaine offenders (who are of course most likely poor and/or minority).

[anakie]

29. as the Bush twins have police records are they eligible to vote??

n/t

[George_S]

30. Part of the eugenics program n/t

[Iris]

32. Because they might actually know how bad Republican policy is

for people who are born on the wrong side of the tracks?