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Ex-Felons Fight To Regain Political Voice
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| Contributor | Gerald Farinas |
| Last Edited | Gerald Farinas Mar 20, 2004 12:27pm |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Saturday, March 20, 2004 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Ex-Felons Fight To Regain Political Voice
AlterNet
Since the 2000 election debacle, an increasing number of politicians and activists have been fighting to end the legally sanctioned disenfranchisement of somewhere in the region of five million Americans. The disenfranchised are men and women impacted by a variety of state laws banning those with felony convictions from casting ballots at elections. After years without a political voice, these individuals are now at the forefront of a growing battle, coordinated by the New York-based Right to Vote Campaign, framed by the emotive language of civil rights.
In their annual conference in San Francisco, the American Bar Association came out against the disenfranchisement of ex-prisoners. In July, at the NAACP convention in Miami, six of the original crop of Democratic hopefuls for the presidential nomination came out in favor of restoring the vote to felons after the completion of their sentences. In Florida, lawyers are fighting a major lawsuit against disenfranchisement codes, and, in two separate cases, the state agreed to re-enfranchise many tens of thousands of individuals, while leaving hundreds of thousands of others still voteless. In Wyoming and Nevada, the legislatures have passed partial re-enfranchisement, allowing non-violent first time felons to regain their vote after completion of their sentence. |
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