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FELON DISENFRANCHISEMENT LAWS IN THE US I was watching a video recently in which a reporter was asking people who they voted for and why. Most of the answers were quips and cliches, but there were these 3 young men who were really thoughtful and articulate and had some interesting points to make.2 of them said who they voted for, but the third one, who was the most enthusiastic and knowledgeable didn't say who he voted for, so the reporter asked him again and he sort of tripped over a word, swallowed and said with a catch in his throat, that he can't vote because he;s a felon.........Whoa!.. I never came across this before......I thought about this and did some research.........6 million Americans were prevented from voting in the 2016 election because of Felon Disenfranchisement laws......and most of them will never be able to vote. Think about it.....A major part of your citizenship is revoked.......A young man makes a mistake....and loses his right to participate in the selection of his leaders,in deciding what laws will determine his 's futures.... Liszt said recently that America is still the free-est country in the World. I thought that was naive considering the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world, for-profit prisons and the strictest felon disenfranchisement laws..One fifth of the African American population is disenfranchised...........Free-est country in the world? |
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7/6/2017 7:06 am |
That particular facet of US voting rights was put in by Republicans. The purpose is to disenfrancise people likely to vote for the Dems. E.g. Blacks. Blacks are much more likely to have felony convictions. In Canada, until the Harper regime, every effort was made to get as many people to vote as possible. At one time quite recently election officials went to homeless shelters to register voters. The Harperites tried to reverse this trend using some of the same tactics the Reps used in the US.
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