# Why prevent felons from voting?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-prevent-felons-from-voting/695187
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [August 9, 2014, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-prevent-felons-from-voting/695187 "2014-08-09T21:16:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 212

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### Author: ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2014, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-prevent-felons-from-voting/695187/212 "2014-08-13T14:29:24Z")

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> [@Halloween OhDope! (that's right, Ohio!) v.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halloween-ohdope-thats-right-ohio-v-2/79067/368):
>
> Secular Moral Principle: Punishment should be tailored to the crime committed.  
> Fact: Disenfranchisement operates the same way for murderers as it does for people who harvest too many oysters.  
> Conclusion: Across-the-board disenfranchisement fails to abide by the principles of just punishment and is therefore bad.

Very good summary, and I admit it hadn’t occurred to me that disenfranchisement as well as Bricker’s proposed restoration process are in no way proportional to the severity of the offense except perhaps in the arbitrary determination of a governor or other state official who can decide a particular crime is too heinous or infamous to risk the potential political fallout of restoration.

> [@Shodan](#):
>
> It’s more impressive than restoring voting rights to feons automatically because you want to.

This is precisely what I was describing earlier. Are you trying to imply my opinion should be discarded because I am pro-felon or pro-felony? I am neither - I’m pro- every adult citizen gets a chance to exercise the franchise.

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