"I Can't Vote, I Was Locked Up."
(Originally posted on Daily Kos.)
If you have ever registered individuals to vote, you've likely had people tell you that they'd like to register but can't because they were incarcerated. As I travel the country educating Americans about felony disfranchisement, I can't tell you the amount of times folks have said this to me. I listen, ask them where they live, and, in many instances, I get to give them the good news that they are eligible to vote.
When I was in Mississippi, a state that permanently disfranchises individuals convicted of certain crimes from voting, I started talking with a woman who told me her two sons could never vote again. After getting some additional information from her, I told her that, in fact, her two sons were eligible to vote. She grabbed my hand and began to cry.
It's no surprise that people are confused — every state has a different policy regarding the voter eligibility of people convicted of crimes. In two states — Maine and Vermont — you never lose the right to vote. On the opposite end of the spectrum are Kentucky and Virginia, the two states that still bar all individuals with felony convictions from voting unless the governor personally restores their right to vote. In between is every possible mix of state law.
Because these laws are so varied and complicated, the elections officials charged with implementing them on the ground are confused as well. We've interviewed elections officials in over 15 states, and in state after state, local elections officials keep getting things wrong.
We've also discovered that voter registration forms don't always offer a clear and concise answer on eligibility. In 33 states and the District of Columbia, voter registration forms have inaccurate, incomplete and confusing information about registering to vote with a criminal conviction. In four cases, the forms have no information whatsoever. When you consider the fact that 47 million Americans have criminal records, the magnitude of the problem rises.
Some days I get to give out exciting information, but sometimes the news isn't so good. Just the other day a man in Oklahoma registered to vote after his sentence was suspended because no one ever bothered to tell him that the couldn't. Now the state wants to prosecute him for voter fraud. How is it that we've turned wanting to cast a ballot into a crime?
Oct 24th, 2008 at 1:35pm
No one should get the right to vote taken from them. Each and every person in a Democracy (that's what we're still calling ourselves, right?) should have an equal say in what happens to him or her
http://www.ryanhartman.wordpress.com
Oct 25th, 2008 at 11:30am
Unfortunately, the powers that be don't want this to be a democracy. It is much easier to rule when you don't have to answer to anyone. This country is done. It is going to tear itself apart from the inside, and I can't say that would be a bad thing. We need to re-evaluate our priorities.
Oct 25th, 2008 at 4:34pm
Why would any person in their right minds let murderers, rapist, gang thugs, baby pedephiles vote, oh, I forgot, this an ACLU website. Money grubbing lawyer whores the lot of you. God unbless you freaks.
Oct 26th, 2008 at 1:01pm
Isn't strang we are looking to protect everyone but the Military voting rights. In VA they are not allowing some deployed military vaotes to be counted. We should find a way so our taxes are no longer paying the ACLU bills.
Oct 28th, 2008 at 1:33pm
I discovered a huge loophole where no prisoner in ohio never ever lost the right.It is so cut dry and may work in other states due to the stupidity of the courts systems. ORC 2961.01 states we lose our right to vote, but this statute just sits in the law book, and is never in our court sentencing journals. In ohio, a court speaks through it's journal. Once delivered to the recepition center, our sentencing journals become permanant record and are journalized. The prison system can not take away our right to vote. They can not perform a judical function, which would violate seperations of power. The court of appeals 10th district ruled ORC 2961.01 is considered a punishment because law makers placed it under title 29 with criminal codes. This is a huge voting block of 50,000. The doctrine of latches would apply, which would secure their voting rights. To this day no one in Ohio, attorneys, lawmakers, secretary of state, borad of elections can show me how we automatically lose the right to vote in ohio out of thin air. All they did was threaten me with felony charges. I begged them to and they all backed off. I have seen sentencing journals for the last 30 years all over the state, and no one ever lost the right to vote in ohio.
Oct 29th, 2008 at 6:19pm
my god, "white man" you are one sick individual...i am a felon, and im not any of those things you named...so should i not have the right to vote now that ive paid my debt to society? seriously, its iggnorant close minded people like you that shouldnt be allowed to vote...you seem so hateful and just dumb...shame on you...
Dec 12th, 2008 at 7:52pm
How many times has the constitution been amended to extend the right to vote? There is no man or woman who should be without representation, yet you say there are 4.5 million of them in the U.S.? That is more than enough to mount a petition to the federal govt for voting rights. I must live in the most backward and constitutionally abusive state in the nation, Kentucky. It does not surprise me that Kentucky is one of the most backward in restoring civil liberties considering they are disregarded on every hand here. The debt to society can NEVER be paid, and the laws are unconstitutional (felony speech and felony rolling papers). I suppose Kentucky leaders have great fear that those that were unlawfully convicted are in such a great mass here that they would be overturned should those who have been oppressed ever receive the right to vote. And with darn good reason!
Who ever decided it was ok to strip those convicted of crimes of their right to vote? From what I've seen of police, law, and justice, (albeit in Kentucky) I say amend that constitution one last time and give these people the right to vote! Give them an avenue to peaceably object to the tyranical treatment and to elect those officials who might be most interested in correcting the many issues within the current system of injustice.
Dec 12th, 2008 at 8:04pm
white man: God bless them all!
You have no knowledge of what is going on in criminal justice because you are as white as I am. I have seen it, and don't call upon God to back you because he'll have none of it. What goes on is an abomination before the Lord and he has no part in it. Even the Lord did say that every 7th year a man's debts would be forgiven! Even Jesus who you likely claim forgave both of those sentenced to death under the laws of those days. In fact, in each recorded encounter with those who committed crimes, he did not condemn them. So who do you call upon to unbless them?
For he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary, from heaven did the Lord behold the earth. To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death.
There will be justice. The right to vote will be restored. Those unlawfully convicted will be released (most of them non-white). There will be equitable treatment for bonds, convictions, and sentencing under the law. Those unconstitutional laws in the individual states MUST be struck down in federal court!
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