Allowing felons to vote

Posted on January 9, 2010 by Michael

Maine and Vermont are currently the only states which allow inmates to vote. A number of other states have laws allowing those convicted of felonies the right to vote after release or after probation is over. Still, several states don’t allow it no matter what. Commit a felony at 18, serve 3 years, and you still can’t vote at 85. The Supreme Court has ruled that the constitution allows this in the 14th Amendment, but the scenario I just gave would seem to at least violate the 8th Amendment. But that may be changing in Washington based upon a federal decision.

The 2-1 ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday overturned the 2000 ruling of a district judge in Spokane. That judge had ruled that Washington state’s felon disenfranchisement law did not violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and dismissed a lawsuit filed by a former prison inmate from Bellevue.

The two appellate judges ruled that disparities in the state’s justice system “cannot be explained in race-neutral ways.”

I’m not sure I find the reasoning here very convincing. These laws do disproportionately affect minorities, but that would seem to be an issue of law enforcement in the first place, not voting rights. One could say bans on ex-cons carrying guns also disproportionately affect minorities, but that doesn’t mean the ban should be overturned.

There is one caveat to that, however. Some states (especially in the south, surprise surprise), specifically did institute these laws to disenfranchise black voters. I’m not sure how a court decision could tease everything out, but it would seem that the appellate court’s reasoning would apply to those states.

But under all this is a more important question: Why aren’t felons allowed to vote? Isn’t the goal to rehabilitate prisoners? Don’t we want to better integrate them into society? Even for lifers, don’t we want them to be a part of a process that isn’t self-destructive and destructive to the lives of other prisoners (and prison officials)? If anything, voting should be encouraged for felons. Disallowing their votes seems to be nothing more then petty revenge, not something remotely helpful to either the prisoners or society.

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Some people are just so wrong

Posted on October 13, 2009 by Michael

This is a Letter to the Editor from today’s Kennebec Journal.

I don’t know about you but I am outraged to think that a felon can vote in Maine. Isn’t it wonderful that we have the reputation of being one of only two states in the country to allow a felon to vote?

Can you imagine that a pedophile who rapes a little child can vote? And, how about the adult rapist, the bank robber, the arsonist, the killer, the guys who used a machete to hack up those folks in Pittston and all the rest of the lowlifes.

I hope the editors of this newspaper write an editorial someday about this travesty of our law. The liberals like it because most of these punks vote for them. It’s easy to know why.

I will sign a petition to get this law changed. Is there an organization out there that will start one? Is there anybody or any group that will say “enough is enough?”

Is there a politician with guts enough to stand up and be counted and start the ball rolling? If the voters of this state don’t wake up and start electing people other than liberals, we will have such a mess that it will never get cleaned up.

C’mon folks, do something!

Roland Preble

Gardiner

Despite the lazy outrage (“Someone else do it!”), I actually was quite pleased to see this letter. I wasn’t aware (or at least had forgotten) that Maine allowed felons to vote. This is excellent. Why should criminality bar someone the voting booth? Committing a felony says nothing of a person’s ability or (more importantly) right to vote. I see no good argument for it.

I do, however, see a great argument against it. We still tax felons, no? We still charge them fees for various registrations and whathaveyou. If we are going to force them to give money to the state for the benefit of the whole, we must also give them the right to have a say in what we do with that money. It is not the place of the state to permanently dictate to any person what it shall do with said person’s money. That is an unreasonable punishment. It amounts to a life-long fine. Worst yet, it strips people of certain fundamental rights. The right to vote should never be taken away from any person, no matter how heinous a crime has been committed.

But I would imagine Roland would prefer felons to vote. The vast majority of the prison population is Christian and against da gays. The whole group could be a boon for conservative issues (like bigotry and ignoring reason).

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