Briefing on Restoring Voting Rights...back >
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.
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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