Restore Felon Voting Rights

Last week, Sen. Russ Feingold and Rep. John Conyers introduced parallel bills in the House and Senate that would restore voting rights in federal elections to more than four million people convicted of felonies and currently denied this civil right

Please join me today in urging Congress to act quickly on the Democracy Restoration Act of 2009, which could, with the stroke of a pen, show millions of formerly incarcerated Americans that they are welcome members of society and that we are committed to including them in our democracy.

Feingold and Conyers introduced this bill last October and it fizzled in a divided and partisan Congress wrapped up in a Presidential election. Since then, the recession has ignited light bulbs over the heads of some fiscal conservatives, who have realized that we’re sinking billions of dollars into a failed incarceration experiment and that preventing crime by helping to rebuild lives can actually stop violence and save us gobs of money. State laws on the felon vote haven't made much progress, however, and continue to be a confusing patchwork.

I write frequently in this space about the failure of mass incarceration to achieve its (supposedly) intended effect, which is to reduce crime. We warehouse millions of Americans, draining budgets and further destroying communities – creating a vicious cycle of poverty and crimes of last resort. When more than half a million prisoners walk out each year, their chances at success are limited – services are limited because too much money is already spent on prisons, employers have little incentive to provide jobs and housing is scarce and severely restricted. The felony on your record, and your job, housing and services application, is a black mark difficult to overcome and felons feel a general sense of exclusion from society – including the lack of fundamental rights like the vote.

The restriction of voting rights to felons is another way to keep the poor disenfranchised, and it needs to end. Leigh Graham wrote about felon voting rights on the Poverty in America blog this week:

From felony disenfranchisement, upwards of 5M Americans have lost their right to vote.  That's a tangible slice of the voting population, especially in certain communities.  This reminds me of a hypocrisy of our immigration laws.  If you are eligible to pay taxes and/or serve in the military, why can't you a) be a citizen and b) have the right to vote?  Taxes, voting, military service.  They should be some sort of inseparable package, IMO.

Please take one minute to email your representatives about this critical issue today.