Restoring Voting Rights for Felons

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/14/opinion/voting-rights-felons.html

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To the Editor:

Re “Florida’s 1.5 Million Missing Voters” (editorial, Jan. 3):

We support the Florida initiative that would re-enfranchise 1.5 million Floridians who have completed their sentences for felony convictions and applaud the editorial board for endorsing it. But the initiative still falls short: Those who have been convicted of murder or sex offenses would still be barred from voting, as would the estimated 200,000 people incarcerated or on parole or probation in Florida.

Criminal justice reform continues to adhere to a false binary of who is worthy versus unworthy. As your editorial mentions, criminal disenfranchisement was adopted to uphold white supremacy. In order for democracy to function, elected officials must be accountable to everyone they represent, which only universal suffrage can ensure. It’s time for Florida’s voters to step up and restore the most fundamental constitutional right to all of their neighbors.

RACHEL COREY, ELLY KALFUSBOSTON

The writers are co-founders of Ballots Over Bars, a campaign to re-enfranchise all people incarcerated in Massachusetts.

To the Editor:

Your editorial is correct that a proposed state constitutional amendment would “automatically restore voting rights to the vast majority of Floridians” who are disenfranchised because they are felons, but it is quite wrong in asserting that this is a “pointless policy” that is “explicitly racist.”

The point of the policy is that, if you’re not willing to follow the law, then you can’t demand a right to make the law for everyone else, which is what you do — directly or indirectly — when you vote. The right to vote should be restored to felons not automatically upon release from prison, but only once they show that they have turned over a new leaf, since alas most felons commit new crimes.

As for the claim that the law is “explicitly racist,” a federal court of appeals ruled 11-1 in 2005 that Florida’s current law was not so motivated.

ROGER CLEGG, FALLS CHURCH, VA.

The writer is president and general counsel, Center for Equal Opportunity.

To the Editor:

I am a conservative Republican who teaches civics to imprisoned Florida felons. Restoration of voting rights to felons who have “paid their debt to society” is the civil rights issue of our time.

Gov. Rick Scott of Florida has repeatedly made it clear that he fears freed felons will vote overwhelmingly for Democrats. But my students’ political beliefs blanket the entire political spectrum. In fact, most would have voted for Donald Trump. Go figure.

Our efforts against recidivism rest in part on convincing those who have done their time that they have a stake as citizens in society. That is why I teach them their constitutional rights and their duties. Can anyone think of a better way to convince them otherwise than by making permanent their civil ostracism? Treat someone as an outsider and he or she will remain one.

JACK THOMPSONCORAL GABLES, FLA.

To the Editor:

The Times rightly criticizes Florida’s denial of the right to vote to people with felony convictions. New York practices its own version of this undemocratic exclusion. According to a report by the Brennan Center, more than 100,000 New Yorkers are currently banned from voting because of a felony conviction. “Nearly 80 percent of those who have lost the right to vote under New York’s law are African-American or Hispanic,” the report notes.

Unlike New York, 16 other states do not deny the right to vote to people on parole. It’s time for Albany to restore this most fundamental constitutional right to tens of thousands of our neighbors.

PETER HOGNESS, BROOKLYN