Restore and protect felons’ right to vote

April 30, 2019 GlenAnderson Criminal Justice (Also see Death Penalty), Democracy, Electoral Reforms, Voting Rights (Also see Political Parties and Elections), Human Rights, Judicial and Constitutional, Our Current Political Crisis (in addition to Trump and Trumpism) 0

Elections would turn out MUCH BETTER if people were not denied their right to vote.  This pertains to people of color, poor people, students living outside of their home districts, and people who have been convicted of felonies.  Only Maine and Vermont allow imprisoned felons to vote, and some are allowing people to regain their voting rights after being released from prison.  Those reforms need to be strengthened and expanded to all states.

Here are some items to help with that:

 

SIGN THIS PETITION:  On April 28, 2019, Democracy for America (www.democracyforamerica.com) sent this e-mail (edited here to reduce length and improve readability) and invited people to SIGN THIS PETITION to tell Democrats — including those in the running for the 2020 presidential race– that people in prison and people who have been convicted of felonies should have the opportunity to vote:  http://act.democracyforamerica.com/sign/voting-disenfranchisement/?t=1&refcode=g-vote0425.d-20190428.m-17112.s-58045&referring_akid=17112.2917727.b2TXZ_

HERE IS WHY YOU SHOULD SIGN THE PETITION LINKED ABOVE:  An estimated 6.1 million people, or 3% of registered voters, in this country are banned from voting. Who are they? Citizens that have been convicted of felonies who are both in and out of prison.  Disenfranchisement of these Americans is an out-of-touch and undemocratic policy that suppresses the votes of the very people most impacted by many of our government’s policies.

Republicans target people of color and poor people for abuse and criminalization.  When Republicans unjustly convict and imprison them, Republicans benefit by depriving those people of the right to vote.  This further incentivizes the conservative right to push for even higher levels of imprisonment.

 

An Op Ed in the New York Times says:  “There Is No Good Reason Prisoners Can’t Vote.”  Read it at this link:  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/11/opinion/voting-prisoners-felon-disenfranchisement.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage&fbclid=IwAR30lYOJuNYPsvIslgzr-Slzt1AdmS5XYdfFmhW_9e4cH75C3eXeAtSsvw8

 

 

 

 

 

 

About GlenAnderson 1514 Articles
Since the late 1960s Glen Anderson has devoted his life to working as a volunteer for peace, nonviolence, social justice, and progressive political issues. He has worked through many existing organizations and started several. Over the years he has worked especially for such wide-ranging goals as making peace with Vietnam, eliminating nuclear weapons, converting from a military economy to a peacetime economy, abolishing the death penalty, promoting nonviolence at all levels throughout society, and helping people organize and strategize for grassroots movements to solve many kinds of problems. He writes, speaks, and conducts training workshops on a wide variety of topics. Since 1987 he has produced and hosted a one-hour cable TV interview program on many kinds of issues. Since 2017 he has blogged at https://parallaxperspectives.org He lives in Lacey near Olympia WA. You can reach him at (360) 491-9093 glen@parallaxperspectives.org