TELL IOWA LEADERS TO RESTORE VOTING RIGHTS!

[Kevin Spidel]

this was an email sent to 500 PDA Iowa Activists
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We need you to tell Iowa politicians to restore voting for former offenders who have already served their time!

Unlike 90% of states, Iowa permanently disenfranchises all citizens who have served their time. As a result, about 80,000 Iowans who have served their time cannot vote, and Iowa is the number one state in disenfranchising African Americans.

Restoring voting for former offenders is critical to ensure fairness in Iowa democracy. Members of the Commission on Presidential Nomination Timing and Scheduling have recently expressed concerns about whether Iowa should remain first on the presidential primary schedule.

HERE'S WHAT WE NEED YOU TO DO:

1) CONTACT ELECTED OFFICIALS: Contact Governor Tom Vilsack and your state senator and representative and tell them that Iowa should extend the right to vote to all Iowans who have completed their sentence (contact info below).

2) REACH OUT TO OTHER IOWANS THROUGH NEWSPAPERS AND TALK RADIO: Write short letters to newspapers and call into talk radio and tell them that Iowa should expand the right to vote to those who have served their time (contact info below).

3) FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO FRIENDS IN IOWA.

TALKING POINTS
-Iowa should restore voting rights to all former offenders who have served their time -Only Iowa and 4 other states permanently ban voting by all former offenders who have served their time (Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, and Virginia) -80% of Americans believe that those who have served their time should be allowed to vote

-About 80,000 Iowans—or 1 out of every 22 Iowa adults--can't vote due to a felony (double the national average)

-1 of every 4 black adults in Iowa can't vote due to a felony (69% have served their time) -Iowa disenfranchises a greater percentage of its African-American residents than any other state in the nation -Iowa's governor can restore voting rights, but only about 3% of those who haver served their time have applied in the past 5 years -The Iowa Caucus, traditionally the first presidential contest, shapes the presidential race nationwide -Iowa's current ban on voting by people who have served their time—which is out of step with 90% of the states in our nation—undermines the legitimacy of the Iowa Caucus -"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." (The Lord's Prayer, Matthew 6:11)

For more information on Iowa's restrictive voting laws by the Sentencing Project, a non-partisan public policy organization, go to: http://www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/Iowa-disenfranchisement.pdf

CONTACT INFO
Governor Tom Vilsack
[phone] (Voicemail)
State Capitol
Des Moines, IA 50319
(to email): http://www.governor.state.ia.us/comments/capitol_correspond/index.html


To obtain your Iowa state senator and representative's phone and email, go to:
http://www4.legis.state.ia.us/find-leg/

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Des Moines Register: [e-mail]
Cedar Rapids Gazette: [e-mail]
Waterloo Courier: [e-mail]

TALK RADIO
Ames/Iowa City: WOI/WSUI Public Radio (Talk of Iowa, topical talk each day, 9-11 am, 800-861-8000 (toll free)) Des Moines: WHO Radio 1040 AM (Mr. Jan Mickelson In the Morning Show, 9am-11am M-F, conservative, [phone] or [phone] (toll free))



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[MARALE]

1. This might have made a difference in the last election

It was so very close anyway, this may have turned the tide. I am doing this!

marale