Should felons be allowed to vote?
An estimated 5.26 million people (as of 2004) with a felony conviction are barred from voting in federal, state, and local elections – a condition known as disenfranchisement. Each state has its own laws regarding whether or not a person convicted of a felony can retain the ability to vote. Two states, Vermont and Maine, allow convicted felons to vote while in prison. Nine states permanently restrict certain felons from voting (until and if granted the state governor’s pardon) even if those people have served their prison sentence, parole, probation, and paid all fines. The remaining 36 states fall somewhere in between.
Given the large number of disenfranchised felons relative to the small margins of victory in some elections, the disenfranchised population could have significant political power to influence elections for one party or another. Examples include: 2008’s Senate race with Franken vs. Coleman in Minnesota (about 300 votes difference in a state with over 38,000 disenfranchised felons); 2004’s Gubernatorial race with Gregoire vs. Rossi in Washington (133 votes difference in a state with over 167,000 disenfranchised felons); and 2000’s Presidential race with Gore vs. Bush in Florida (537 votes difference in a state with over 1.1 million disenfranchised voters).
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Convicted felons should not be allowed to vote. They broke the law and prison and loss of rights as a citizen are the penalties. I didn’t know that Vermont and Maine allowed felons to vote, but somehow doesn’t surprise me.
Absolutely felons should be allowed to vote. Once a person has served his time his right to vote should be re-instated. They already served their time, they have paid their debt to society. Taking away the right to have a say in who runs their country, state and city, only serves to disenfranchise that person. Let’s not forget the purpose of jail is not to only punish but to rehabilitate the felon.
Also a felon doesn’t “lose his rights as a citizen”. They simply lose the right to vote. They still are afforded every other right any other citizen has, so why do they lose this one? A large majority of felons commit those crimes when they are too young to know the importance of voting. This is a by-product to keep those on the lower end of society… to not have a say in the society as a whole. That completely undermines the very foundation of a democratic society.
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