Briefing
on
Restoring
Voting
Rights...back >
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July 22, 2014 - Sen. Rand Paul
(R-KY) and Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) spoke at a briefing on restoring
voting rights for people with past criminal convictions. State
laws vary widely, ranging from 11 states where felons can face
lifetime disenfranchisement to states where they are not allowed to
vote while on
parole or on probation to a couple of states where felons can vote
absentee from prison. All told an estimated 5.85 million
Americans cannot vote because they have a felony conviction, and over
four million of these individuals have served their sentences.
Sen. Paul noted that "some of them are people who just made youthful
mistakes" and cited the example of friend of his whose brother 30 years
ago received a felony conviction for growing marijuana plants at
school, and still cannot vote in Kentucky. Sen Cardin stated
that, "To me this is the Jim Crow law, one of the Jim Crow laws of our
time." He said the problem "unfairly affects minority
communities," noting for example that 8-percent of African Americans
(about two million people) are disenfrancished. "Recidivism rates
will decline if people are fully engaged in their community, and the
way to be fully engaged in their community is to participate in
elections," Cardin said. Sens. Paul and Cardin have introduced
different bills to address the problem. Sen. Paul's Civil Rights
Voting Restoration Act (S.2550)
would
restore
federal voting rights for
non-violent criminals. Sen. Cardin's more expansive Democracy
Restoration Act (S.2235)
would
restore
voting rights in federal
elections once an individual has been released from prison.
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The Brennan Center for Justice
at New York University School of Law and the American Civil Liberties
Union organized the briefing. Nicole Austin-Hillery, director and
counsel of the Brennan Center's Washington, DC office, moderated.
Participants included (l to r) Desmond Meade, state director of PICO
Florida's Lifelines to Healing program and president of the Florida
Rights Restoration Coalition; Deborah Vagins, senior legislative
counsel on civil rights issues for the ACLU; Rev. Dr. H David
Schuringa, president of the Crossroad Bible Institute; Bernard Kerik,
former police commissioner of the City of New York; and Carl Wicklund,
executive director of the American Probation and Parole Association.
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