Bipartisan Legislation Would Restore Voting Rights to Ex-Prisoners

[marmar]

from AlterNet:



Bipartisan Legislation Would Restore Voting Rights to Ex-Prisoners

Posted by Erika Wood, Brennan Center for Justice at 4:16 PM on February 25, 2008.

Thirty-five states deny the vote to felons who have served their time. Now a Democrat and a Republican are trying to change that.



Senator Russ Feingold and Secretary Jack Kemp joined together last week to propose the Democracy Restoration Act -- a federal law that seeks to restore voting rights to U.S. citizens on probation and parole. The proposal is noteworthy for several reasons, not the least of which is that it is made by two prominent political figures: a Democrat and a Republican. The bipartisan proposal makes it clear that restoring voting rights is about democracy, not about politics.

More than 5.3 million American citizens are denied the vote in our country because of a criminal conviction in their past. Nearly four million are people who have been released from prison but continue to be disenfranchised for years, often for decades, and sometimes for life.

As Senator Feingold and Secretary Kemp note, there has been significant momentum in the states to end these draconian disenfranchisement laws. In the last decade, 16 states have eased voting restrictions on people with conviction histories. In 2007 alone, Florida, Maryland, and Rhode Island all took steps to restore voting rights. But disenfranchisement is a national problem. Thirty-five states continue to deny the vote to people who have been released from prison and rejoined society.

The right to vote forms the core of American democracy. Once a privilege reserved for a few white men, Americans have fought hard to make it a right guaranteed for all. The Democracy Restoration Act would make this ideal into a reality. It is a proposal that we can all come together to support, not as Democrats or Republicans, or liberals or conservatives, but as Americans who believe in our democracy.


http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/77785/

[TahitiNut]

1. Essential, imho.

Issues ranging from prison reform, fair trials, and decent public defenders to a discriminatory justice system demand that the constituents be enfranchised. While it's reasonable for the exercise of voting rights to be suspended while the individual is institutionalized, it's unreasonable to extend such abridgement beyond the term of incarceration.

[Hawkeye-X]

2. I've done my time.....

and my voting right was restored as of 1/18/08. All I had to do was show them my papers...

And yes, it was a part of why I disappeared for 3 months, and I wish not to discuss it any further, because it's a past I'd like to forget.

[IsItJustMe]

8. Then why did you bring it up? Let the dead past bury the dead past. This is your story, but it's

not who you really are.

God bless

[jody]

3. All civil rights of Ex-Prisoners should be restored & that includes the right to keep and bear arms.

[varkam]

4. I'll never forget getting that letter from the board of elections...

It read like a Dear John. Hopefully, though, this might mean I can vote in the upcoming election.

[mdmc]

5. kick

jailbirds vote 9-1 for dems:kick:

[L. Coyote]

6. It is NOT reasonable for voting rights to be suspended for criminal convictions

because the State cannot assume it is entirely flawless regarding convicting innocents.

Deprivation of voting rights for crime conviction is a raw political tool swinging elections
towards authoritarianism, not towards justice or equality under law.

[IsItJustMe]

7. With one out of a hundred people being in prison in America right now,

this tells me that if they don't do something to stop these draconian laws, there will be huge numbers of people in this country who will be disenfranchised from the political process. That can't be good.