Every citizen should have the right to vote, even violent murders and rapists. Is the concern that a bunch of felons will get together and vote in a fellow felon to the local school or water...
Every citizen should have the right to vote, even violent murders and rapists.
Is the concern that a bunch of felons will get together and vote in a fellow felon to the local school or water board? Or is it just that felons are more likely to be poor and therefor their vote has to be supressed?
The American justice system since its Inception has been more about punishment than anything else. This stems from our cultures Puritan roots. Therefore removing the loading ability of convicted...
The American justice system since its Inception has been more about punishment than anything else. This stems from our cultures Puritan roots. Therefore removing the loading ability of convicted felons is a punishment nothing more nothing less. Though I am sure it has the since been co-opted into some political tool.
Most of these felony disenfranchisement laws go back to the Jim Crow Era / Black Code Laws and were deliberately made to keep black people from voting. The long, racist history of Florida’s...
Most of these felony disenfranchisement laws go back to the Jim Crow Era / Black Code Laws and were deliberately made to keep black people from voting.
This, and similar laws like it around the country, has the potentially to be one of the most quietly transformative changes to American democracy of the past few decades. Millions of people now...
This, and similar laws like it around the country, has the potentially to be one of the most quietly transformative changes to American democracy of the past few decades. Millions of people now eligible to vote. Millions who are systematically and chronically disenfranchised at that.
This is going to make polling models and predictions somewhat unreliable for a little while as well since pollsters will have to adjust their assumptions of what a likely voter looks like.
The big challenge next is how to organize them and enable them to exercise that right.
Good. Folks who've seen sides of the legal system some may not have seen should absolutely have a voice. (Arguably...everyone should have a voice.)
Every citizen should have the right to vote, even violent murders and rapists.
Is the concern that a bunch of felons will get together and vote in a fellow felon to the local school or water board? Or is it just that felons are more likely to be poor and therefor their vote has to be supressed?
The American justice system since its Inception has been more about punishment than anything else. This stems from our cultures Puritan roots. Therefore removing the loading ability of convicted felons is a punishment nothing more nothing less. Though I am sure it has the since been co-opted into some political tool.
Most of these felony disenfranchisement laws go back to the Jim Crow Era / Black Code Laws and were deliberately made to keep black people from voting.
This was not co-opted as a political tool against black people, its original intention was very much one of white supremacy and minority oppression.
This, and similar laws like it around the country, has the potentially to be one of the most quietly transformative changes to American democracy of the past few decades. Millions of people now eligible to vote. Millions who are systematically and chronically disenfranchised at that.
This is going to make polling models and predictions somewhat unreliable for a little while as well since pollsters will have to adjust their assumptions of what a likely voter looks like.
The big challenge next is how to organize them and enable them to exercise that right.