The Washington Post has an article today on the efforts of activists who have been working to register former felons to vote. The conventional wisdom is that such things help Democrats, given that often the felony disenfranchised are African-American. But Republicans have been pretty receptive to the idea of former felons voting as well, as long as the formerly incarcerated trend Right, such as Latino ex-offenders in Florida that Jeb Bush as Governor "forgot" to put on a list of former felons who were ineligible to vote in 2004.
Fortunately, the next Republican Governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, took a more egalitarian view of voting rights, reinstating them for ex-felons under certain conditions, but nevertheless making what the Tampa Tribune describes in an article last month as anywhere between 250,000 and 500,000 people eligible to vote in this election.
The bigger issue is why such people lose their right to vote in the first place. Forty-eight states have laws limiting voting rights for ex-felons. Such laws are Constitutionally suspect. If someone has fulfilled their legal obligations in prison, why are they still being punished after release? Why do former felons lose the right to act politically in their own self-interest once they are supposedly free? What, exactly, is Constitutional about depriving American citizens of one of their most basic civil rights? How does disenfranchising the formerly incarcerated encourage them to be productive members of society? Most ridiculous is the presumption that such laws are "tough on crime." How does preventing ex-felons from voting prevent crimes from being committed?
In any case, Florida's law is pretty moderate: Non-violent offenders are reinstated after completion of sentence and parole if they have no outstanding charges, but those who have committed more serious crimes have to apply for the restoration of their rights through the Florida Office of Clemency. Republicans in other states may recoil in horror at the idea of former felons voting but luckily for the party as a whole, Republicans in Florida haven't been nearly as fussy.
Will the politically savvy formerly incarcerated sway Florida? I'm skeptical, but given the number of black men who have been disenfranchised and are now eligible to vote in Florida, combined with enthusiasm in the black community for Barack Obama's candidacy, I suppose it's possible. It certainly couldn't hurt.
--A. Serwer
