Should Felons be allowed to Vote?

[Impenitent]

</span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (roxdog,)
Well, unfortunately, that doesn&#39;t sit too well with Imp&#39;s fascist outlook on everything soooooo, no clemency means nothing. Anything the state dictates we are obligated to follow it.<hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'>

:rolleyes: nice ad hominem and hasty generalization...

[rhod01]

If it was legal, voter turnout would be atleast 51%&#33;

[Suburbanite]

Should Martha Stewart never be able to vote again?

[rhod01]

In my view, yes. Everyone of adult age has a right, as a human being, to be allowed to vote.

[Sandy]

This is a State&#39;s decision (one of the very few left) and I say if you want felons to vote take it up with your State Secretary of State and get it on your ballot.

The death penalty is another one. California&#39;s Supreme Court voted it down until the Manson murders. A quick petition by the voters, brought back the Death Penalty in record time.

Martha Stewart cannot vote in her own state if that states has the rule that no felons may vote&#33; I don&#39;t know where she is registered to vote but that is her problem, not mine.

[dotcoma]

Until you get framed for something...

[m3talsmith]

</span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (roxdog,)
Until you get framed for something...<hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'>
There is the main point. Don&#39;t think it won&#39;t happen. It happened shortly after the US was formed. Benjamin Franklin&#39;s Son died because of a false jail sentencing.

Jail time can be fixed very easily.

Watch what you approve of... it could be used to trap you later. Voting for as much freedom as possible is not only in other peoples favor, but also in yours. The less freedom you call for, the more chances you take just living and breathing. Because eventually they will use your words and rules against you.

[rhod01]

The less people that can vote, the easier it is for government to be successfully authoritarian.

In my view.

Notice how authoritarian and successfull middle-ages and modern governments are? Check out the voting rights, they&#39;re usually low.

The same with free media. A great example is America and Russia. Mostly favouring the major parties, etc.

[toys]

They should be required to vote.
Then, maybe, we could all vote at prisons, instead of schools....it somehow seems more safe.
It couldn&#39;t possibly hurt the turn-out rate any more, could it?

[Blef]

Certainly felons who are citizens of a state should be allowed to vote. In fact, I find no justification for disenfranchising them even while incarcerated. Regardless of whether they have committed a crime, they are still citizens and should still be allowed a voice in shaping the government that they are subject to. Certainly it is unfathomable that a felon who has completed his sentence not be allowed to vote.

"The right to vote freely for the candidate of one&#39;s choice is of the essence of a democratic society, and any restrictions on that right strike at the heart of representative government."

Chief Justice Earl Warren, Reynolds v. Sims (1964)

"Disenfranchisement is the harshest civil sanction imposed by a democratic society. When brought beneath its axe, the disenfranchised is severed from the body politic and condemned to the lowest form of citizenship, where voiceless at the ballot box . . . the disinherited must sit idly by while others elect his civic leaders and while others choose the fiscal and governmental policies which will govern him and his family. Such a shadowy form of citizenship must not be imposed lightly."

Henry Wingate, Mississippi Federal Judge

[Mozart1220]

If felons couldn&#39;t vote congress would have nothing to do.....

[Aequo]

Cheating in Las Vegas is a felony. Counting cards at blackjack? Felony&#33; No vote for you&#33;