Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell is back in the news today after the kerfluffle over honoring the Confederacy. He plans to require ex-felons to compose an essay about their contributions to society in order to get their voting rights back. (Cite.) He claims the new essay requirement is an effort to speed up the process of restoration of rights and to “put a human face on each applicant.”
Both literacy tests and felony disenfranchisement have a nasty racial history. They were initially designed for the express purpose of disenfranchising black people. If you doubt the racial history of felony disenfranchisement or literacy testing, we can debate that sub-issue. But there is no doubt that any additional hurdles in the process of re-enfranchisement disproportionately affect black people, who are only a fraction of the state population but a majority of those facing disenfranchisement (link).* While nearly every other state in the Union has moved away from permitting Governors to decide who gets to vote and who doesn’t, McDonnell apparently thinks the process needs to be more subjective.
The question for debate is this: Do you buy his explanation, that it is intended to cut the time needed and to put a face on applicants? Is this a good faith effort to help ex-offenders restore their voting rights, or is it an attempt to reinvigorate the Southern Strategy while keeping a few likely Obama voters disenfranchised?
This is largely because of the disproportionate conviction rate of black people for drug crimes even though drug use and distribution rates are the same across races. Indeed, Virginia specifically targets drug crimes for harsher voting rights treatment, further exacerbating the racial impact.
It seems to me that this will produce so few new votes, that it’s hard to imagine making a difference in future elections. Hence, I’m not sure we need to posit a nefariou motive. But I could be wrong… are there any estimates of how many votes this will produce, and which way they would tend to go?
If you’re asking how many votes would have been restored under the old process as compared the new process with the essay, I don’t think there’s any way to answer the question. Currently, over a quarter million black residents of Virginia are not allowed to vote. Given the great quantity of people being churned through the justice system, even a change of a couple of percentage points would mean thousands of votes.
p.s. I really don’t see the complaint about the title. Is your objection that it only applies to ex-offenders?
America hates it’s…what might be the expression?..criminal class? With a virulence that borders on the breath taking. We know our prisons are all too frequently machines for producing violently paranoid psychopaths out of misfits and bums. We know so much about prison rape that it is a common theme in our humor. We seldom make even the slightest pretense that we might wish to salvage these potential citizens, and we are perfectly content to make the petty thief the daily victim of the murderer. Because they deserve it, I suppose.
Those few voices that speak for their humanity are howling in the wilderness, they will not be heard, and if heard, scorned. Whatever progress made in that will be trivial and fleeting. But enough.
As one committed to democracy, it is my opinion that voting is the holy grail of our secular devotion. I believe that we should extend every reasonable effort to ensure as many of our citizens can vote, will vote, and are equipped to vote. Anything less falls short of the mark.
Following on that, I expect that voting rights are returned whenever the sentence, including such probation as merited, is complete. If we do not let them know that we believe that change is possible and redemption feasible, what reason can we offer them to change other than divine inspiration, which is so unreliable?
I know. I mean, it’s not as big a change as suggested in the OP (certainly not as much as in the title!), because some felons already have to write an essay. He’s just expanding that.
Jesus. I should have known there’d be more conflict over the lack of specificity in the thread title than over the disenfranchisement of a few hundred more black men in the South. Fine. Mea culpa. If a mod wants to change the thread title to “VA Gov. wants a literacy test for restoration of non-violent ex-offender voting rights,” and if that title will fit, I’d be much obliged if you’d make the edit.
Two states don’t take them away at all, felons may vote from prison. Most other states allow them to vote after (this varies) completing prison, probation, or parole. Only twelve remove voting rights permanently, and even then not necessarily for all felons.
IMO this is too conservative. Mentally incompetent people don’t belong in prison so there is no excuse to remove voting rights from people in prison. Not that I propose to debate my position but rather use it to explain my opposition to the Governor’s proposal on the assumption that it would further limit the franchise.
Though if we don’t debate basic positions there might not be much of a thread. If you favor limiting the franchise you like the move if not, not. Is there anyone this doesn’t apply to? Anyone who thinks the franchise is generally too liberal that dislikes it or too restrictive that doesn’t?
Is there actually a good reason to take away the right to vote from those in prison or with felony records?
To me the right to vote is so fundamental that I’d allow all adult citizens (and I’d be willing to drop the voting age to somewhere around 14ish) to vote; no matter what their crimes. I’d probably want them to vote absentee in the riding they were resident in before incarceration, otherwise large prisons might be a problem locally.
State Voting Laws & Policies for People with Felony Convictions - Felon Voting - ProCon.org Here is the list of how each state treats its felons. In 2004 one in 8 blacks were not allowed to vote because of felonies or being jailed. In Alabama, Mississippi, west Virginia ,Wyoming and Florida ,one in 4 blacks could not vote. Some states require the governor to pardon a felon so he or she can vote.
It is about race.
