States Restore Voting Rights For Ex-Convicts

Felony disenfranchisement affects about 5.3 million former and current felons in the United States. But voter registration and advocacy groups say that recent overhauls of these Reconstruction-era laws have loosened enough in some states to make it worth the time to lobby statehouses for more liberal voting restoration processes, and to try to track down former felons in indigent neighborhoods.

A loose-knit group of national organizations working to restore voting rights includes the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the NAACP, and the Brennan Center for Justice. Two other groups, the Sentencing Project and the American Civil Liberties Union, said they had given briefings to officials for Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign about how to register former felons. However, the Obama campaign has been reluctant to acknowledge any concerted effort. Last month, Obama campaign workers took down a sign at their headquarters in Pottstown, Pa., that said “Felons can vote,” because it might have sent the wrong message. “The fear is that it might cost them more votes to be portrayed as the candidate of the felons than it could gain them,” said Anthony C. Thompson, a New York University law professor and Obama campaign adviser. “This is a mistaken belief, in my view, when there are tens of millions of citizens with criminal records.”

Felony voter restoration efforts have received bipartisan support in states like Alabama, Florida, Indiana and Maryland. Still, surveys show that about 70% of former convicts lean Democratic, according to Christopher Uggen, a University of Minnesota criminologist. “That’s because of the high rate of incarceration among African-Americans, who have strong Democratic preferences,” he said, “and because many people who have committed felonies are working class, relatively young, unmarried and in particular individuals with less than a high school education. These are all demographics that traditionally align themselves with the Democrats.”

My response: The Democratic Party is also softer on criminals. For example, far more opposition to the death penalty, three strikes legislation, and to gun rights so law-abiding folks can protect themselves. Given recidivism rates, this is surely another factor in why ex-convicts overwhelmingly support Democratic candidates for public office.

A few ago, I was a community field organizer doing voter registration (paid for by the National Organization for Women) throughout the Chicago area. If ex-convicts and have completed all probation and parole requirements, then they should be able to exercise the franchise. Their crime is in the past (and the ones who I met were mainly convicted of drug possession or sale, which I don't believe should be criminalized anyway). However, prisoners and jailees should not be able to vote.