# On what basis can a state deny parolees the right to vote?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-what-basis-can-a-state-deny-parolees-the-right-to-vote/435771
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 31, 2008, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-what-basis-can-a-state-deny-parolees-the-right-to-vote/435771 "2008-01-31T21:23:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2008, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-what-basis-can-a-state-deny-parolees-the-right-to-vote/435771/21 "2008-02-01T15:16:48Z")
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> A. An inmate confined to incarceration retains the right to vote by absentee ballot in a primary or election, providing the inmate has met all voting requirements.
[http://www.doc.state.vt.us/about/policies/rpd/324.01%20Voting.pdf](http://www.doc.state.vt.us/about/policies/rpd/324.01%20Voting.pdf)
[http://www.doc.state.vt.us/about/policies/rpd/324%20Voting.pdf](http://www.doc.state.vt.us/about/policies/rpd/324%20Voting.pdf)
They vote “at home” in the sense that their votes count in the place where they last resided: [If prisoners could vote, they would vote at home, not in the prison town | Prison Gerrymandering Project](http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/news/2003/12/15/vote/)
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> In Maine and Vermont, inmates can vote (by absentee ballot) on everything, including the election of judges and how much money is spent on the police in their hometowns.
[http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/01/politics/campaign/01prison.html?\_r=1&oref=slogin](http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/01/politics/campaign/01prison.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)
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### Author:  [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2008, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-what-basis-can-a-state-deny-parolees-the-right-to-vote/435771/22 "2008-02-01T15:27:35Z")
From the NYT article cited in my previous post:
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> Massachusetts used to let felons vote while in prison, but that was before three inmates tried to form a political action committee in 1997 to lobby for cheaper telephone calls and better medical care. Paul Cellucci, then the governor, opposed the prison PAC and proposed a constitutional amendment to stop inmate voting, which passed in 2000.
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### Author:  [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2008, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-what-basis-can-a-state-deny-parolees-the-right-to-vote/435771/23 "2008-02-01T20:44:18Z")
[QUOTE=guizot]
I’m still wondering how far a state could get in disenfranchising a person for speeding. Would it survive a Supreme Court test? What is a “crime,” and if once a criminal, always a criminal, and not a full citizen?
[/QUOTE]
Most of the cases and historical sources talk about disenfranchisement for felonies and infamous crimes. Even in a jurisdiction like Ohio which makes speeding a minor misdemeanor
[Section 4511.99 - Ohio Revised Code | Ohio Laws](http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/4511.99) [http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/enforce/speedlaws501/toc/ohspeed.pdf](http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/enforce/speedlaws501/toc/ohspeed.pdf)
[http://www.sconet.state.oh.us/rod/newpdf/8/2006/2006-Ohio-1947.pdf](http://www.sconet.state.oh.us/rod/newpdf/8/2006/2006-Ohio-1947.pdf)
instead of a civil infraction:
[http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/enforce/speedlaws501/toc/mispeed.pdf](http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/enforce/speedlaws501/toc/mispeed.pdf)
it’s unlikely that a court would find it to be infamous. And in other contexts, the Court has distinguished between serious and petty crimes: _E.g_, [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment06/04.html#4](http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment06/04.html#4), [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=ne&vol=sc/s97-641&invol=1](http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=ne&vol=sc/s97-641&invol=1) I’d expect a similar ruling in a case like that.
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