States Restore Voting Rights for Ex-Convicts

[babsbunny]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/us/politics/14felony.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Striding across a sweltering strip-mall parking lot with her clipboard in hand, Monica Bell, a community field organizer in Orlando, Fla., was looking for former convicts to add to the state’s voter rolls.


Antonious Benton, a gold-toothed 22-year-old with a silver skull-shaped belt buckle, a laconic smile and a criminal record, was the first person she approached.

“I can’t vote because I got three felonies,” Mr. Benton told Ms. Bell. He had finished a six-month sentence for possession of $600 worth of crack cocaine, he said. But Ms. Bell had good news for him: The Florida Legislature and Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican, changed the rules last year to restore the voting rights of about 112,000 former convicts.

[Eric J in MN]

1. A US citizen who commits a felony is still a US citizen.

It should have nothing to do with voting rights.

People in prison for felonies should be able to vote (and they can in Vermont.)

It's neither good for democracy nor good for rehabilitation to disenfranchise felons.