Restore Felon Voting Rights
Published July 31, 2009 @ 09:32AM PT
Last week, Sen. Russ Feingold and Rep. John Conyers introduced parallel bills in the House and Senate that would restore voting rights in federal elections to more than four million people convicted of felonies and currently denied this civil right
Please join me today in urging Congress to act quickly on the Democracy Restoration Act of 2009, which could, with the stroke of a pen, show millions of formerly incarcerated Americans that they are welcome members of society and that we are committed to including them in our democracy.
Feingold and Conyers introduced this bill last October and it fizzled in a divided and partisan Congress wrapped up in a Presidential election. Since then, the recession has ignited light bulbs over the heads of some fiscal conservatives, who have realized that we’re sinking billions of dollars into a failed incarceration experiment and that preventing crime by helping to rebuild lives can actually stop violence and save us gobs of money. State laws on the felon vote haven't made much progress, however, and continue to be a confusing patchwork.
I write frequently in this space about the failure of mass incarceration to achieve its (supposedly) intended effect, which is to reduce crime. We warehouse millions of Americans, draining budgets and further destroying communities – creating a vicious cycle of poverty and crimes of last resort. When more than half a million prisoners walk out each year, their chances at success are limited – services are limited because too much money is already spent on prisons, employers have little incentive to provide jobs and housing is scarce and severely restricted. The felony on your record, and your job, housing and services application, is a black mark difficult to overcome and felons feel a general sense of exclusion from society – including the lack of fundamental rights like the vote.
The restriction of voting rights to felons is another way to keep the poor disenfranchised, and it needs to end. Leigh Graham wrote about felon voting rights on the Poverty in America blog this week:
From felony disenfranchisement, upwards of 5M Americans have lost their right to vote. That's a tangible slice of the voting population, especially in certain communities. This reminds me of a hypocrisy of our immigration laws. If you are eligible to pay taxes and/or serve in the military, why can't you a) be a citizen and b) have the right to vote? Taxes, voting, military service. They should be some sort of inseparable package, IMO.
Please take one minute to email your representatives about this critical issue today.
Share this Post
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
StumbleUpon
Delicious
EmailRelated Posts
Comments (9)
Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.
Author
-
Matt has worked and volunteered in various capacities in criminal justice reform for several years. When he's not blogging, he works as the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project. Views expressed here are Matt's, and don't represent the positions of the Innocence Project.
Featured Criminal Justice Actions
-
-
-
Overturn the Texas Prison Book Ban
197 People
-
Overturn the Texas Prison Book Ban
Thanks Matt for writing about this. I'm a person that made some bad choices in my early 20's and had this right taken away from me. Throughout the years and especially our last voting session for the presidency, I attempted to make inroads in getting my rights restored only ending up accomplishing zero to get this task done, well I was reminded that I'm not educated enough to understand this process on figuring out how to do this on my own including my position to be able to afford to pay someone else to get this done for me.
pEACE,
hAROLD
Posted by Harold Morales on 07/31/2009 @ 11:26AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Mr. Morales, it takes an A-load of money, and a good attorney. There are law libraries, but, if I were you, I'd take an easier road. Everything is public record. Find a case, a lot like your own, and use it as a blue print. This will help you determine what forms you'll need, and the proper order to put them in.(Because heaven forbid, if one be out of place.)
As for restoring voting rights to inmates.....Uh, no. Once you've paid a debt to society, and become a functioning member, then yes. But, when you have murdered, raped children, committed hate crimes; your moral compass, doesn't exactly point in the general direction as the rest of societys'.
Mr. Kelley, the fact that this is a Republican idea, only goes to show, how desperate they are to gain support.(Not to make light,) but who better, than from fellow thieves.
Posted by L.S. hope on 08/03/2009 @ 12:07AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
"Mr. Kelley, the fact that this is a Republican idea"
Republican idea?
Sen. Russ Feingold (DEMOCRAT)and Rep. John Conyers (DEMOCRAT)
"restoring voting rights to inmates"
Restore to Who?
"show millions of FORMERLY incarcerated Americans "
Posted by Thomas Kinney on 08/03/2009 @ 10:27AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Harold,
I agree with you. Just because people make legal mistakes does not mean they should have their voting rights taken away from them. My fiancé was a victim of terrible circumstances and wound up getting a felony for supposed distribution of marijuana. However, this was not the case but due to him not being able to afford a lawyer and fight a very unjust system he ended up being hit with a felony. He has his masters and has been working towards his doctorates in history and now he can no longer become a history professor or even vote. It sickens me to see that our system is able to have this much control over a person (to make or break their livelihood). Anyway, I say good luck to you man and keep on fighting for your rights!
Posted by Candice May on 08/04/2009 @ 09:56AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Ms. May, I'm sincerely sorry for your fiance's situation. The, "marijuana issue," in our country, really gets under my skin.
Posted by L.S. hope on 08/06/2009 @ 12:16AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
NO NO NO and a Thousand Times NO.
This law was placed in the books for a good reason and is part of the punishment of committing a felony. Once a felons time is served his or her punishment is not done, the removal of the privilege of voting is still part of that punishment. We did not fail these people they failed themselves, the made a choice to commit a crime of their own will and volition. Stop trying to give back what they gave away, if one wants to vote don’t be a criminal, criminals should not be given the privilege to vote, own a fire arm or any other privilege they gave up,
Signed
An Angery Liberal
Posted by David Lewis Smith on 07/31/2009 @ 04:04PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Wrong, Wrong Wrong and a Thousand Times Wrong.
You sound more like an angry lock 'em throw away the key Conservative to me. Guess you would also be one who punishes a child everyday for the rest of his life for an early age infraction. Almost anyone, and I did say almost, deserves a second chance and no, they did not "give" anything away. It was taken away as was their freedom when they were incarcerated. Like the restoration of freedom once the debt is paid, so also should other rights be restored.
Posted by Thomas Kinney on 07/31/2009 @ 09:14PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
It's that bleak and dividing attitude that perpetuates the criminal cycle. What purpose does removing felon voting rights serve to the community? This is something that has perplexed me since the 6th grade. Such an emphasis in this country on civil rights. People DIED for the right to vote. How can we justify removing voting rights of individuals who have paid their debt to society? Are we afraid of some kind of "felon caucus"? It smells to me more like a continuation of Jim Crow to me. We're still arresting and convicting a disproportionately large number of African Americans. If the majority of felons were white we would have seen reforms decades ago.
Posted by mikey johnson on 08/01/2009 @ 08:35PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Once a person has served their sentence, they have paid their debt to society and their voting rights should be restored. Felons can't serve on juries either so prosecutors and cops can feloniously perjure themselves and falsify evidence with total impunity because naive jurors side with them wrongfully convicting many innocent people saddling them with phony criminal records because they mistakenly/delusionally believe that cops don't arrest innocent people and that there is a real penalty when the state lies under oath.
Many people don't realize how Republican "law & order" hypocrite activist "judges" have eliminated the most basic Constitutional right to an appeal by fabricating an "in custody" requirement and allowing deliberate oppression and obstruction of appeal rights through deliberately delayed adjudication of post-conviction proceedings by "judges" and court administrators and outright deliberate court-appointed legal malpractice by public defenders and appellate attorneys who maliciously and intentionally discard the convicted defendants' appeal rights to prevent appellate review of a local political railroading in kangaroo kourt. Only lifers serving life without the possibility of parole and death penalty inmates have the Constitutional right to an appeal because of conservative activist "judges" who use the Constitution as their personal roll of toilet paper in violation of their publicly sworn solemn oath of office. (The same conservative hypocrite "law & order activist "judges" ruled that inmates don't have a right to prove their innocence with DNA evidence.)
Posted by Jeffrey Hill on 07/31/2009 @ 06:49PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.