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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGeorge Will-Theres no good reason to stop felons from voting
I was happy to see that Texas is somewhat liberal on ex-felon's voting. Florida is horrible and there is a lawsuit and a ballot measure to change this. I was please to see this piece by George Will https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/theres-no-good-reason-to-stop-felons-from-voting/2018/04/06/88484076-3905-11e8-8fd2-49fe3c675a89_story.html?utm_term=.6a5dc4f5f7cb
Recidivism among Floridas released felons has been approximately 30 percent for the five years 2011-2015. Of the 1,952 people whose civil rights were restored, five committed new offenses, an average recidivism rate of 0.4 percent. This sample is skewed by self-selection overrepresentation of those who had the financial resources and tenacity to navigate the complex restoration process that each year serves a few hundred of the 1.6 million. Still, the recidivism numbers are suggestive.
What compelling government interest is served by felon disenfranchisement? Enhanced public safety? How? Is it to fine-tune the quality of the electorate? This is not a legitimate government objective for elected officials to pursue. A felony conviction is an indelible stain: What intelligent purpose is served by reminding felons who really do not require reminding of their past, and by advertising it to their community? The rule of law requires punishments, but it is not served by punishments that never end and that perpetuate a social stigma and a sense of never fully reentering the community.
Meade, like one-third of the 4.7 million current citizens nationwide who have reentered society from prison but cannot vote, is an African American. More than 1 in 13 African Americans nationally are similarly disenfranchised, as are 1 in 5 of Floridas African American adults. Because African Americans overwhelmingly vote Democratic, ending the disenfranchisement of felons could become yet another debate swamped by partisanship, particularly in Florida, the largest swing state, where close elections are common: Republican Gov. Rick Scotts margins of victory in 2010 and 2014 were 1.2 and 1.1 percent, respectively. And remember the 537 Florida votes that made George W. Bush president.
Last week, Scotts administration challenged a federal judges order that the state adopt a rights-restoration procedure that is less arbitrary and dilatory. A Quinnipiac poll shows that 67 percent of Floridians favor and only 27 percent oppose enfranchisement of felons. These numbers might provoke Republicans, who control both houses of the legislature, to try to siphon away support for the restoration referendum by passing a law that somewhat mitigates the severity of the current policy. Such a law would be presented for the signature of the governor, who is trying to unseat three-term Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.
0rganism
(23,984 posts)unblock
(52,440 posts)unblock
(52,440 posts)DemocracyMouse
(2,275 posts)... don't like to give people the right to shut down opposition parties by imprisoning them and taking away their voting rights. Republicans have done this by placing 1 out of 4 Af Am men in jail.
unblock
(52,440 posts)Clearly not enough. But they did frame government's legitimacy as flowing from the power of the people, and that gets turned upside down if government gets to choose its voters.
I mean, aside from the obvious failures of denying the vote to to slaves and women.
NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)Even while incarcerated. The conditions in prison are unacceptable. It is one of the more horrendous aspects of our society, if not the most. They often do their best to separate certain elements but you are still left with buildings and yards of violent and non-violent offenders next to each other. Then housing the more violent people elsewhere, often separated by race or gang, giving themselves plenty of time to feed off each other. This is how we treat humans in our own country.
USALiberal
(10,877 posts)Demsrule86
(68,768 posts)rights restored. When I was in college my philosophy professor who looked like a hippie but was a right winger( I can spot them). gave us a question on an exam...it has to do with arguing for or against one of Will's columns...this one concerned women...he wrote some of the most sexist crap I ever had the misfortune to read. I argued against what Will said but was careful to follow the 'rules'. He wrote on my paper 'I gave you an A but I am think you are completely full of shit". Yes he said shit...still remember that. I debated throwing aside my principles and writing something a right winger would like, but in the end I couldn't do it. I was pleasantly surprised he graded me fairly.
LSFL
(1,110 posts)And all your rights should be restored. No question in my mind.
USALiberal
(10,877 posts)Convicts can vote in Maine I think. Any other states?
USALiberal
(10,877 posts)In summary: In Maine and Vermont, felons never lose their right to vote, even while they are incarcerated. In 14 states and the District of Columbia, felons lose their voting rights only while incarcerated, and receive automatic restoration upon release.
http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/felon-voting-rights.aspx
aidbo
(2,328 posts)USALiberal
(10,877 posts)aidbo
(2,328 posts)I said George Will can suck an egg.
George Will can suck an egg because hes a reactionary POS who enabled the GOPs slide into fascism and white nationalism by putting a veneer of respectability on it. And when the inevitable result of that slide - a Donald Trump presidency - happens, hes suddenly an independent.
The fact that I agree with him (and Im not even sure if I believe he means what hes writing here) that felons should be able to vote is just coincidental. Heck, I believe people should be allowed to vote while they are incarcerated.
But now George Effing Will comes out and says felons that have done their time should be allowed to vote and what? I should welcome George Will to the #Resistance? Eff that noise.
Asshole: The Earth is round.
Me: That guy is an asshole.
You: Do you disagree with the assholes stance on the shape of the Earth?
Ps: George Will can suck an egg.