Coretta Scott King: Let everyone vote
Courtesy of CNN
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine (AP) -- The widow of Martin Luther King Jr. said the right to vote should be open to everyone in a democracy, including those who have been convicted of crimes.
Ending the disenfranchisement of convicted felons is part of the unfinished business of the civil rights movement, Coretta Scott King said at an NAACP event marking the 40th anniversary of the Portland chapter in Maine.
During her keynote address Saturday night, King emphasized the need for political empowerment as a way to help minorities achieve gains in areas such as jobs and education.
She said that in a democracy, the right to vote should be absolute and should not, as in some states, be withheld from felons who have completed their prison sentences or remain free on probation or parole.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/10/03/naacp. ... ull story.
Resources:
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Statistics:
Scope: How many people are affected?
Approximately 4.7 million Americans were affected by these laws in 2000 (1.8 million were African American). Our preliminary 2004 estimates are 5.0 million total and 2.0 million African Americans.
Public Opinion: Does the public support strict felon voting restrictions?
No. Our survey of 1000 Americans showed that 80% favor returning voting rights to former felons once they complete their sentences, 60% favor reenfranchising parolees and probationers. Only 31%, however, favor allowing current prisoners to vote.
Impact: Do felon voting laws affect elections?
Yes, but only in close Republican victories in states with very strict laws. Felon disenfranchisement is likely to have affected the outcome of the 2000 presidential election and 7 U.S. Senate elections.
Origins: Where do the laws come from?
They have ancient roots, but many of the strict U.S. felon voting bans are linked to racial conflict during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods.
Meaning: Do felons even care about voting and politics?
Our interviews and surveys show somewhat lower levels of political participation, trust in government, and political efficacy among felons than in the general population. Yet many felons express strong political views on a variety of issues.
Crime: Is voting linked to crime and recidivism?
We do not know whether voting causes reduced crime, but we find a strong correlation. In our Minnesota data, voters in 1996 were about half as likely to be rearrested from 1997-2000 as non-voters.
Source: http://www.soc.umn.edu/%7Euggen/FD_summary.htm
Should convicted felons be allowed to vote?
Moderator: solid_dave
I couldn't really figure out where I stood on this issue, so I had to take a couple hours to read up on it.
Here's my personal opinion:
Is felon disenfranchisement legal?
The 14th Amendment states that the right to vote shall not be abridged "except for participation in rebellion, or other crime."
Currently 48 states prohibit felons from voting while incarcerated, and at least 10 exclude all felons, whether or not they have finished serving their time.
Is felon disenfranchisement a race issue?
As racial disparities in incarceration rates rise, the cost of disenfranchisement falls increasingly on African-Americans; it is estimated that approximately one in seven African-American males cannot vote.
Title 42, U.S. Code, Section 1973 states that no abridgement of voting rights may be based upon "account of race or color."
According to Roger Clegg, general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity in Sterling, Virginia, "Others support felon re-enfranchisement because a disproportionate number of felons are black."
Some members of Congress have recently proposed legislation that would make it illegal for states to bar felons from voting. According to Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution, authority for determining elector qualifications is given to the states.
The Supreme Court has upheld congressional bans on certain voting practices and procedures, such as literacy tests, that are not themselves discriminatory but have disproportionately excluded racial minorities from voting. But as the court later stressed, these cases involved bans aimed at practices that historically have been rooted in intentional discrimination. The disenfranchisement of criminals has no such roots.
As we near the 2004 elections, the Florida Division of Elections has done an about-face and decided it will allow voting by nearly 2,500 citizens whose restored voting rights had been threatened with revocation. The former felons, many of them African-American Democrats, had been wrongly included on a state list of voters to be purged. Florida is one of seven states that does not automatically restore civil rights to felons after they have served their prison sentences.
Disenfranchisement is not a race issue.
In my personal opinion, it is legal. Those who commit crimes in our society are actively rebelling against the very laws which protect us from social chaos. Voting is not a right, it is a priviledge and a responsibility.
This is a criminal issue, not a race issue. More African-Americans are imprisoned in this country because more African-Americans commit felonies in this country. They are imprisoned based on their crimes, not based on a political agenda to alter the outcome of an election.
Equal rights does not mean that racial statistics should show an equal percentage across the board. It means that the same rights should be extended to the entire population, without consideration of race. That doesn't mean that if 100 black felons have lost their voting rights, and only 30 white felons have, that we should reenfranchise some of the black felons to balance it out. It means that the same restrictions have been placed on all felons, no matter what their race.
To say that disenfranchisement is wrong because it hurts the African-American vote turns the election into a race issue. The election is not a race issue. It's a voter issue. We should not analyze votes by race, but rather accept that all Americans who are eligible have cast their vote, regardless of their race.
"And with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation." Revelation 5:9b (NIV)
Here's my personal opinion:
Is felon disenfranchisement legal?
The 14th Amendment states that the right to vote shall not be abridged "except for participation in rebellion, or other crime."
Currently 48 states prohibit felons from voting while incarcerated, and at least 10 exclude all felons, whether or not they have finished serving their time.
Is felon disenfranchisement a race issue?
As racial disparities in incarceration rates rise, the cost of disenfranchisement falls increasingly on African-Americans; it is estimated that approximately one in seven African-American males cannot vote.
Title 42, U.S. Code, Section 1973 states that no abridgement of voting rights may be based upon "account of race or color."
According to Roger Clegg, general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity in Sterling, Virginia, "Others support felon re-enfranchisement because a disproportionate number of felons are black."
Some members of Congress have recently proposed legislation that would make it illegal for states to bar felons from voting. According to Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution, authority for determining elector qualifications is given to the states.
The Supreme Court has upheld congressional bans on certain voting practices and procedures, such as literacy tests, that are not themselves discriminatory but have disproportionately excluded racial minorities from voting. But as the court later stressed, these cases involved bans aimed at practices that historically have been rooted in intentional discrimination. The disenfranchisement of criminals has no such roots.
As we near the 2004 elections, the Florida Division of Elections has done an about-face and decided it will allow voting by nearly 2,500 citizens whose restored voting rights had been threatened with revocation. The former felons, many of them African-American Democrats, had been wrongly included on a state list of voters to be purged. Florida is one of seven states that does not automatically restore civil rights to felons after they have served their prison sentences.
Disenfranchisement is not a race issue.
In my personal opinion, it is legal. Those who commit crimes in our society are actively rebelling against the very laws which protect us from social chaos. Voting is not a right, it is a priviledge and a responsibility.
This is a criminal issue, not a race issue. More African-Americans are imprisoned in this country because more African-Americans commit felonies in this country. They are imprisoned based on their crimes, not based on a political agenda to alter the outcome of an election.
Equal rights does not mean that racial statistics should show an equal percentage across the board. It means that the same rights should be extended to the entire population, without consideration of race. That doesn't mean that if 100 black felons have lost their voting rights, and only 30 white felons have, that we should reenfranchise some of the black felons to balance it out. It means that the same restrictions have been placed on all felons, no matter what their race.
To say that disenfranchisement is wrong because it hurts the African-American vote turns the election into a race issue. The election is not a race issue. It's a voter issue. We should not analyze votes by race, but rather accept that all Americans who are eligible have cast their vote, regardless of their race.
"And with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation." Revelation 5:9b (NIV)