WP op-ed "Why Can't Ex-Felons Vote?"

[silverlib]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9785-2004Aug17.html

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Why Can't Ex-Felons Vote?

By Kevin Krajick

Wednesday, August 18, 2004; Page A19

<snip>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.<snip>

<snip>But last year Alabama Republican Party Chairman Marty Connors stated a bald truth: "As frank as I can be," he said, "we're opposed to because felons don't tend to vote Republican." <snip>

<snip>According to one convincing study done at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, George W. Bush would have lost Florida by 80,000 votes in 2000 had ex-felons been allowed to vote -- even assuming most of would not have bothered to vote and a third would have voted Republican. <snip>

[TheFarseer]

1. WOW, I didn't even know that

I don't think prisoners and parolees should be able to vote, and maybe not probationers, but people that have done their time in jail or on probation should be able to vote just like anyone else.

[Mr.Green93]

2. why can't they own firearms?

restore all rights.

[AirAmFan]

3. If ex-cons could own firearms, then there would be no need for the

state tracking databases used to restrict ex-cons' LEGAL gun ownership and also, in a number of (mainly Southern) states, to disfranchise millions of them. As the Alabama GOP chairman admitted, that would not be good for Republicans, so it will not be allowed to happen.

[Nimrod]

4. How they're getting away with this

When the word "felon" is brought up, the immediate image that comes to mind is a violent thief and rapist with a swastika tattooed on his body and a gun shoved down his pants. Nobody cares that Mad Dawg McCree isn't allowed to vote.

My cousin is a lovely girl. Soft-spoken, sweet, intelligent, and deeply committed to her family and relationships. She's also an ex-felon. She got pulled over in Oregon back in 1997 with a Washington license plate and about 1/4 ounce of marijuana in the glovebox of her car. Six years for felony possession and trafficking.

[silverlib]

6. Ex-felons can vote in Texas, but

the shame is, for the most part, they do not know this.

I know a guy much, like your cousin, who completed his parole four years ago. He insists he cannot vote because he is an ex-felon.

And as this article points out, in many places where ex-felons can vote, they are asked to privide papers that they do not have.

And you are absolutely correct. The largest percentage of ex-felons are not violent offenders.

[Miss Authoritiva]

5. For those interested in a straightforward review of felony

disenfranchisement in the United States, see "Democratic Contraction?" by Christopher Uggen and Jeff Manza in the American Sociological Review, December 2002, Volume 67, pages 777-803. It is available online in HTML and PDF formats.

Uggen and Manza have published several other works on the topic too.