Voting a Cornerstone of Productive Citizenship
Written By: Ryan Erickson-Kulas
As the 2009 Virginia Democratic Gubernatorial Primary has ended and the general election campaign begins, one issue receiving dramatically increased attention is the restoration of voting rights for ex-felons in Virginia. All three Democratic primary candidates, including victor Creigh Deeds, came out in favor of restoring voting rights for nonviolent felons once they have finished their sentence and probation. Under current Virginia law, all convicted felons are permanently disenfranchised unless they receive a personal intervention from the governor. Virginia and Kentucky are the only two states that have such strict laws; however, similar measures exist in various forms throughout the nation. Only thirteen states and the District of Columbia allow convicted felons to vote upon release from prison and only two states allow felons to vote from prison.
Such disenfranchisement of an entire group of the population is staggering. The Sentencing Project, which is a national organization working for a fair and effective criminal justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing law and practice, estimates that one in forty-one adults have lost their right to vote, either currently or permanently, due to a felony conviction. This problem severely affects African Americans with 1.4 million African American men being disenfranchised. Their rate of disenfranchisement, which is 13%, is seven times higher than the national average.
While the pledge by Virginia’s Democratic gubernatorial candidates is encouraging, there is much work to be done in returning the right to vote to felons. In the 110th Congress, the late Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones introduced The Count Every Vote Act (H.R. 1381). This bill would have restored the right to vote across the nation to those felons that completed their prison sentences and probation or parole. This initiative would return the right to vote to as many as 2.1 million Americans. By enfranchising these individuals it will give them the opportunity to more effectively integrate themselves back into society as fully productive members.
At the Student Association for Voter Empowerment (SAVE), we support efforts to restore the vote for ex-felons. We believe that those individuals should be able to express their opinions and political will through the power of the ballot. A democracy cannot run effectively without input from all members of society, and the current system in Virginia and other states does not allow for input to be heard from a large segment of the population. We believe that voting is a key to effective reintroduction to society and support efforts to give felons the voting rights that have been stripped from them.
