More on felon disenfranchisement

In the thread to the post below, Scott P. suggests denying felons the right to vote is consistent with social contract theory. I think that's probably true for some but not all versions of social contract theory, but not a particularly helpful observation. Another commenter, Thomas, suggests "One who has wronged society should not get to participate in the legislating of that soceity until their debt is paid." This is, I think, simply too abstract a way to think about the issue to be of much use.

I'd recommend that anyone who finds this line of thinking persuasive read this old Matt Welch piece. Central to his argument is that, when we take a closer look at the laws, most of us are probably unprosecuted felons. It's much more helpful to think of the disenfranchisement of felons as the disenfranchisement of a subset of felons--those who live in populations where felonies are agressively policed, and who commit felonies we choose to actually enforce.

Once we view the matter in this light, abstract social contract theory about the treatment of 'those who have wronged society' becomes much less helpful in thinking about this issue in the context of contemporary American politics. We've chosen some felonies and some populations to agressively police and prosecute, and others to almost entirely ignore. In the contemporary American political context, the relavent question is not "should those who have wronged society have their participation in collective governance suspended?" A better question would be "should everyone who has ever taken a hit of X have their voting rights stripped if they happen to get caught and for some reason are not given the opportunity to plead out?" An even better one might be "should communities whose illegal drug use is heavily policed deserve their collective voting power diminished vis a vis communities whose illegal drug use is not heavily policed?"

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Next British Election May Not Comply With European Court of Human Rights Law

and not because the Tories may win, or even that the election may result in a hung parliament.

Rather, the EUCouncil of Europe is upset that the UK has been delaying the enactment of a 2005 European Court of Human Rights judgment that it is inconsistent with human rights law to disenfranchise convicted prisoners.

Come on, Britain, if Maine, Vermont, and even Canada can do this, so too can you.

Seriously, this places the lifetime voting ban of convicted felons, a grotesque anti-democratic practice of 14 U.S. states (according to Wikipedia . . . 11 of which, shockingly, are located in the South; I'm certain race does not factor into this policy whatsoever) in context. Of course, as this is state jurisprudence, felon enfranchisement law varies; I am having a difficult time confirming the wiki numbers. However, let it be duly noted that a resident of Mississippi convicted of timber larceny (whatever the hell that is) permanently banned from voting. This heinous crime doesn't appear to be on the Alabama list, so I'd recommend crossing the border and setting up home in Alabama after release . . . but beware of committing treason (against the U.S.A.? The C.S.A.? The State of Alabama?) because that will blacklist you there.

A number of states require the convicted, and released, felon to appeal to the governor for a full pardon or clemency in order to enjoy the restoration of their voting rights. I guess that's because in a number of states the governor doesn't have anything better to do than determine, on a case-by-case basis, the fitness of his or her citizens to cast a ballot.

In attempting to understand how prisoners are treated for apportionment purposes, I found no clear guidelines, but I did find this observation:

"The American incarcerated population, 2,212,475 persons strong, is larger than the population of the fourth-largest city in the United States, commands a greater population than fifteen individual states, and contains more people than the three smallest states combined. If the incarcerated population of the United States were a state of its own, it would qualify for five Electoral College votes."

And two U.S. Senators!

According to this source, 5.3 million Americans are denied the franchise due to past or current felony status. Again I'm stunned to note that there's a race element involved:

African-Americans in particular were disproportionately disenfranchised and living in states where disenfranchisement is permanent even after a felon completes their sentence. Today, an estimated thirteen percent of black men are unable to vote due to a felony conviction.

13%. This is bonkers.

But at least the Europeans (and Canadians!) have a handle on the issue. Those wacky Europeans. What the hell will they dream up next as a human right, I wonder?

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Indiana Court vs. The Vote Fraud Fraud

The Indiana Court of Appeals struck down the Voter ID Act that was upheld by the United States Supreme Court last year. The opinion gets right to the heart of the issue:

All qualified voters must be treated uniformly and impartially. We fail to see how the Voter I.D. Law's exception of those residing in state licensed care facilities, which happen to also be a polling place, would be a uniform or impartial regulation. Furthermore, the Voter I.D. Law treats in-person voters disparate from mail-in voters, conferring partial treatment upon mail-in voters.

The disparate treatment of mail-in and ballot-box voters is particularly indefensible given 1) the obvious political self-dealing (absentee voters are predominantly Republican, voters without IDs primarily Democratic) and 2)the fact that the few cited examples of vote fraud involved absentee ballots, not in-person voting. When the rights of a discrete and insular minority are burdened in ways that benefit the partisan interests of the majority party by means of a law is farcically underinclusive given the stated justification...what you have there is an equal protection/privileges and immunities violation. Good for the Indiana courts for doing what the Supreme Court shamefully wouldn't.

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