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| Prospect for change, a push for voter rights |
| By Ann Coppola, News Reporter |
| Published: 07/02/2007 |
The issue of voting rights for individuals with a felony conviction is on the rise across the United States. Maryland recently enfranchised 52,000 citizens who previously could not vote because of past felony convictions, while Florida also has been working towards a complete restoration process for its citizens. Corrections.com spoke with Marc Mauer, Executive Director of The Sentencing Project. He is also a founding member of the Right to Vote Campaign, a national collaboration of the American Civil Liberties Union, New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, and The Sentencing Project, whose mission is to remove barriers to voting for people with felony convictions. Corrections.com: How does felony disenfranchisement impact our society? Marc Mauer: When people come home from prison they face a lot of obstacles. If we want to reduce recidivism we need to encourage people to be connected to positive institutions and constructive experiences in the community. Voting is one of the very strong ways people feel they have a stake in the outcome of their community. The message that we send instead by disenfranchising people is, ‘Even though you’ve done your time, you’re still a second class citizen.’ That doesn’t encourage people to feel like responsible citizens, so keeping them from voting works counter to public safety. If we restore voting rights it doesn’t guarantee that they will become involved, but it’s one more good thing that will help them rejoin the community. CC: What are the laws concerning a felon’s right to vote like today? MM: Felon voting rights is a state issue, so the laws are quite different and complicated from state to state. Some states allow only individuals on probation and ex-felons to vote. Others allow individuals on parole, probation and ex-felons to vote. Only Maine and Vermont allow incarcerated individuals to vote, and a few states ban anyone with a felony conviction from voting for life, even after they’ve served their sentence. CC: What are some arguments against restoring voting rights? MM: Some people say a felony conviction demonstrates that a person is not loyal or trustworthy, except this country doesn’t generally impose character restrictions on people who want to vote. Everyone gets to vote, good character or bad. Some people are afraid of criminal voting blocks, while others say it is a legitimate punishment for their crime. CC: Is there a difference between trying to restore rights to people on probation and parole and with completed sentences versus those who are incarcerated? MM: Fundamentally the question is the same - should we forfeit someone’s rights because they have a felony conviction? We generally don’t take away the right to free speech in prison. For example, an inmate can write to the editor of Washington Post if they want to. If you look internationally, Canada allows people in prison to vote and about half of the nations in Europe do to. CC: What are the current numbers on felony disenfranchisement? MM: Right now an estimated 5.3 million Americans are denied the right to vote because of a felony conviction. At the Sentencing Project we had produced reports in 1997 and 1998 that provided the first national estimate of the number of people disenfranchised. The estimate at that time was around 4 million people. African-Americans in particular were disproportionately disenfranchised and living in states where disenfranchisement is permanent even after a felon completes their sentence. Today, an estimated thirteen percent of black men are unable to vote due to a felony conviction. CC: How do these rates affect the black population? MM: Because in part the numbers are so high, when we disenfranchise large numbers of African-Americans it also has an effect on black communities and people not convicted of a crime. Since so many have lost the right to vote, persons living in largely black neighborhoods essentially have their voting influence reduced because they have fewer voters. If one neighborhood is competing against another for school funds, they have a decrease in voting influence because of the policy. CC: How do you decide where to start a campaign to restore voting rights? MM: We try to go wherever there is a local interest in working for change. All the states we’ve worked in there’s been a coalition that already exists that’s been working to advocate legislative change or do community outreach. We’ve always worked closely in partnership with state campaigns. Secondly, we look at prospect for change. In some states, the laws are embedded in state constitutions and it’s difficult to overturn them. We’re generally cautious before we take on work in one of those states, because the odds of success are not all that high. CC: What makes a campaign successful? MM: It really varies from state to state. For the Rhode Island campaign that began several years ago, it started with a Family Rights Center study that analyzed the number of people disenfranchised and statistically broke it down by race and geographic location. It was startling what they were finding. They worked both sides of the aisle and got Democrats and Republicans behind them. Over the course of two years they succeeded in getting a ballot initiative, which is required to change the constitution. They voted on it in November of 2006 to extend voting rights to people on probation or parole. Over the course of the five months prior to the vote we engaged in public education, door to door, and a lot of attention to media, including getting an op-ed published in the Providence Journal by the police chief of Providence advocating for restoration of rights. Getting bipartisan support for changes with a combination of strategies ultimately led to a new law adopted by voters. CC: Does Right to Vote have any goals for the 2008 presidential election? MM: Most of what we do is primarily a state-based issue. However, we like to be part of campaigns like Get Out the Vote to encourage people with felony convictions and everyone else for that matter to get out and vote. We want to make sure people know their rights, know the laws in their state, and can make a choice to be involved in voting for our next president. Related Resources: More on the Right to Vote Campaign Read Op-Ed piece by Providence Chief of Police Colonel Dean Esserman |
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