How does everyone feel about felon voting rights?

[Igel]

93. They should be allowed to vote after they've served their time and are done with their punishment.

And in most states either this is the case (for at least a wide variety of crimes) or can be the case with a fairly routine petition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felony_disenfranchisement#United_States

The OP is a question, and not an assertion. Nonetheless, it presumes something like "Felons are generally not allowed to vote after they have served their time and paid for their crimes." This is a strawman.

A large number of ex-cons are prohibited from voting across the country, however. In some cases it's because the state restricts voting rights for their particular crimes, but in more cases it's because they haven't bothered to petition for restoration of the right.

This kind of question just reinforces the belief that ex-felons are simply not permitted to vote and have no recourse. The proper course of action, barring having the rights automatically restored, would be to let them know they can petition for the franchise.

Actually, I rather suspect that this has the same effect as all the voter-ID blather had in Texas. More people didn't bother to vote because they assumed they lacked proper ID (when they had the necessary ID) than couldn't vote for lack of proper ID. All the discussion about how so many people in this class or that group were going to be disenfranchised discouraged them. At the same time, we accuse (R) of suppressing voter turnout. The accusations did more harm, in all likelihood, than the actual voter suppression.

We constantly say felons can't vote, so those marginally attached to society or the electoral process simply assume it's a waste of time to try. Even if they could.