Regaining of vote by thousands of felons said to aid Democrats

[Nambe]

Palm Beach Post

Next year's Democratic presidential nominee could gain 1,500 to 3,000 votes in Florida thanks to a recent court order allowing some felons to vote, says a criminologist who studies felon voting issues.

That's a small but potentially pivotal number of votes in a state where the 2000 presidential election was decided by 537 ballots out of 6 million cast. -

Allowing felons to vote helps Democrats because people convicted of felonies likely will favor Democratic candidates by more than a 2-to-1 margin, says Christopher Uggen, a University of Minnesota professor who has written extensively on felon voting issues.

Uggen's estimate of felon partisanship is backed up by a 2001 Palm Beach Post analysis that found 5,643 likely felons managed to cast ballots in 2000 despite the state's ban on felon voting. Of these voters, 68 percent were registered Democrats.

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