There are enough criminals in government already voting!

(7) State disenfranchisement laws disproportionately impact ethnic minorities.

Disproportionate?? If you can’t manage to control the urge to commit crime you pay the price…Simple as that.

Consider this excerpt from The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander :

Jim Crow laws were wiped off the books decades ago, but today an extraordinary percentage of the African American community is warehoused in prisons or trapped in a parallel social universe, denied basic civil and human rights— including the right to vote, the right to serve on juries, and the right to be free of legal discrimination in employment, housing, access to education and public benefits. Today, it is no longer socially permissible to use race explicitly as a justification for discrimination, exclusion, and social contempt. Yet as civil rights lawyer-turned-legal scholar Michelle Alexander demonstrates, it is perfectly legal to discriminate against convicted criminals in nearly all the ways in which it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans.

Drug use is relatively equal between blacks and whites. So there’s obviously a problem here.

Consider this excerpt from The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander :

Jim Crow laws were wiped off the books decades ago, but today an extraordinary percentage of the African American community is warehoused in prisons or trapped in a parallel social universe, denied basic civil and human rights— including the right to vote, the right to serve on juries, and the right to be free of legal discrimination in employment, housing, access to education and public benefits. Today, it is no longer socially permissible to use race explicitly as a justification for discrimination, exclusion, and social contempt. Yet as civil rights lawyer-turned-legal scholar Michelle Alexander demonstrates, it is perfectly legal to discriminate against convicted criminals in nearly all the ways in which it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans.

Drug use is relatively equal between blacks and whites. So there’s obviously a problem here.

I see she is looking to get reelected by the criminal vote.

If a sentence has been served, then that citizen has paid their due to society. How can rehabilitation ever occur if the citizen is never allowed back into society? Does a felony at age 21 define that person forever? Does the citizen ever stop paying for their crime?

If a person is no longer in custody and in prison their right to vote should not be held and they have every right to vote just like the ordinary people.

By violating the laws, rules and social mores of society a person renders void his rights in that society. Felonies carry heavier penalties for a reason. Another example of Sheila Jackson-Lee helping remove individual responsibility and accountability for actions. This type of legislation tells me the punishments are getting less and less and the appeal of criminal activity grows in proportion. Thanks Sheila!

Too many people did their crimes and their time while they were young, stupid, and gullible. Many continue to commit crimes after maturing because the current system not only takes away their voting rights, but doesn’t guarantee them a right to non-discriminatory housing or employment. What’s left but to panhandle, rob, or engage in illegal business activities if you are cast out of society without any other means to properly fend for yourself? Should all felons just roll over and die because they made a mistake? Felons need a voice. Voting is a good start to getting other rights back.