What Giving Felons the Right to Vote Says About Us
At the bottom of this post are excerpts from this article, which talks about restoration of voting rights and disenfranchisement in general.
This issue is particularly pressing in Florida, which is one of the few states that has automatic disenfranchisement of Felons combined with an arduous process for getting their rights restored. Even though the state passed Amendment 4, which is supposed to automatically restore voting rights to SOME felons, politicians are fighting the will of the voters by arguing over nuances in the process. The result of this argument is that ex-felons whose rights were supposed to be restored still can’t vote and we’re approaching the end of a legislative session and it appears as though no solution will be implemented anytime soon.
With respect to our issues; Amendment 4 would have exempted persons required to register as sex offenders from automatic restoration. I always wondered why. What is the concern about me voting? Are they concerned I’ll expose myself at a polling station? Are they worried I’ll draw obscenities on the ballot? What’s the big deal?
Each year the legislature introduces new “sex offender bills” which impact our population significantly. These are not supposed to be “punishments”, so why is it we are not allowed any say into the laws that will impact us the most? You would think that laws concerning any specific group of people should consider the input and insight of those who the law effect, but nobody wants to hear from us because our votes don’t count.
It goes much further than that. By disenfranchising a group of people, the message is they are not worthy of being members of society. What does that do to their psyche? How does that impact their ability to reintegrate and live productively? In the spirit of criminal justice reform and “second chance” legislation, we need to dig deeper and consider the longer term effects of the policies we are implementing. Our goal should be to return people to society better equipped to live lawfully, than worse off.
We could simply deny all felons, even after their release, the right to vote. But then that undermines our claimed notion that prison is how we have people repay their debt to society. I’m opposed to that just as I’m opposed to sex offender registries: If we’re deeming someone “safe” to return to society, that should come without lifelong conditions.
where’s our line? The person who questioned Sanders wanted to include rapists as an excluded class, but rape laws vary from state to state, and we’re talking about federal elections. Why should the same act strip someone’s federal voting rights based on the state they were in when they committed it?
This also continues to rely on only one branch of our myth of meritocracy: That the people in prison, or that the people with life sentences, deserve it. It ignores the other branch: That nobody else deserves it.
Another concern I have with sex offender registries is that they create a false sense of security: Nobody in a half-mile radius is on The List, so everyone is safe. That’s nonsense. There are dangerous sex offenders walking the street right now. I know there are probably several within a few blocks of my home. They just haven’t gotten caught yet.
On another level, too, there’s a psychological importance of not disenfranchising “terrible people”: Stripping people of their “member of society” status helps us to dehumanize them.
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What Amendment 4 has done is codify the creation a sub-class of citizens, which had began in 1997, and continues to this day.
Could someone please explain the public policy rationale for why I cannot vote based on the recently-approved state constitutional amendment? Over 20 years ago I had consensual sexual activity with a 16 year-old when I was 25 years old, for which I was sentenced to probation. Under the new constitutional provisions, I cannot vote yet someone who committed a home invasion robbery with a firearm, or someone who shot someone that survived, or someone who kidnapped and beat up his girlfriend, etc., can all vote once they’ve been let out of prison and any probation has been completed. But I cannot. Is there any rational basis for why I should be treated more harshly than they are? Would even the most ardent supporter of sex offender restrictions say that I’m a greater danger to society than such individuals? And all of these offenses are scored higher (8, 9 or 10) in the Florida Criminal Punishment Code than mine (level 6), so there’s not even a statutory basis for this distinction. It is completely irrational and arbitrary.
You live in Flori-duhhhh. That’s all the explanation you need. Did you see the inbred redneck morons that ran the prison you were in??? I did. Well guess what, they’re cousins or uncles or uncle/daddy or whatever relative is the moron in Tallahassee making these laws that cause us to be seen as less than human.
My fault. I didn’t pay attention. You didnt go to prison. Well, there’s your explanation anyway.