In Iowa, Paying Your Debt to Society Isn't Quite Enough

[Honeycombe8]

1. They clearly don't want felons holding office. Answer: don't commit a felony.

Although the article acts like his criminal history was a teen funsy-thing, it apparently was a felony, which is not an easy charge for a teen to get.

Felonies are serious business. I was trying to tell a neighbor, who expressed the desire to run for city council or something, that his two old felonies for drug dealing would interfere with that. He seemed surprised by that. But it's true...even if he were allowed to run, which I'm not sure of, he wouldn't get elected. Felonies are serious business. The public doesn't take a felony lightly.

A teen who did misdemeanors, like stealing money from newspaper machines, vandalism, etc., they will not have that follow them around their entire lives.

It's also possible to get a juvenile record expunged.