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| Freed Felons, Inmates Should Be Allowed to Vote, Group Says |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 10/07/2002 |
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Thomas Johnson has always held dear his right to vote - that is, before and after he served a year-long sentence in New York for selling crack cocaine and carrying a loaded handgun. Johnson was restored his voting privilege in New York, however, when he moved to Florida he was told he'd have to apply for, and be granted clemency if he wanted to cast a ballot. 'I said, what for? I've never committed a crime in Florida,' said Johnson, 54, executive director of House of Hope, a program that helps ex-felons get housing, jobs and counseling in Gainesville, Fla. 'I've changed my life and I'm a productive citizen, yet I feel I'm without citizenship,' he said. About 130 people at the National Symposium on Felony Disenfranchisement on Monday discussed ways to get states to reconsider their policies on voting rights for people with a felony conviction. Each state makes its own laws on voting rights for incarcerated felons and those who have already served their prison sentences. A felony is a grave crime such as larceny, murder, rape and drug offenses, that brings a sentence of at least a year in prison. About a half-million people with a felony conviction will be allowed to vote in this November's elections as a result of changes in state laws over the past five years, according to The Sentencing Project, a Washington, D.C.-based group advocating that even more ex-convicts and inmates be allowed to cast ballots. Most recently, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico and Texas have made some changes in state felon disenfranchisement laws. Currently, 48 states and the District of Columbia prohibit inmates from voting while in prison for a felony offense, according to the group, which is sponsoring the two-day symposium. Maine and Vermont allow inmates to vote. Eighteen states disenfranchise when an inmate is in prison. Other states either don't restore an ex-felon's voting right or have restrictions such as a sentence and probation completion requirement. This can make a difference in election outcomes, the group said, estimating that about 3.9 million have currently or permanently lost their voting rights as a result of a felony conviction, according to figures the group said it got from the Department of Justice. But Todd Gaziano, director of The Heritage Foundation legal and judicial studies, said states laws governing felony disenfranchisement should be respected. 'It helps prevent dilution of the vote of law abiding citizens who are in high crime neighborhoods where law enforcement issues are of a particular importance,' he said. 'It's part of the original punishment. It's not arbitrary. It's on the books,' Gaziano said. |
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