United States citizens with a criminal background should be allowed to vote in their state of residency Ontreal Harris Professor Ross Composition II Reference Shaw, Jerry. “When Did Ex-Felons Lose Their Rights to Vote? A History.” Newsmax. Newsmax Media, Inc. http://www.newsmax.com/FastFeatures/felons-voting-rights-history/2015/04/16/id/638889/ "Disfranchisement." West 's Encyclopedia of American Law. 2005. Retrieved May 01, 2016 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3437701425.html “Felon Voting.” ProCon. 2008. May 01, 2016 from ProCon.org: http://felonvoting.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000668 “Felon voting rights.” National Confederence of State. 2016. May 01, 2016 from NCSL.org: http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/felon-voting-rights.aspx#background …show more content…
Observably, the Jim Crow laws passed by southern states effectively disfranchised African-Americans from the late nineteenth century until well into the 20th century. In the ongoing of Reconstruction, after the Civil War, African Americans in the south briefly enjoyed voting privileges because they felt nearly equal to whites. However, around 1890, legally sanctioned disfranchisement occurred abruptly. For example, during the years’ right after the Civil War, African Americans made up as much as forty-four percent of the registered electorate in Louisiana, but by 1920, they constituted only 1 percent of the electorate. In Mississippi, almost seventy percent of eligible African Americans were registered to vote in 1867 and after 1890, less than six percent were eligible to vote. There were similar decreases in the percentages of elected black officials in all Southern states. They employed disfranchisement devices such as poll taxes, property tests, literacy tests, and all-white primaries to prevent African Americans from voting. On the surface, such laws discriminated on the basis of education and property ownership other than race, but their practical and intended effect was to block African Americans from the …show more content…
Other forms of disfranchisement, including the disfranchisement of criminals, remain controversial. Since the early 1990s, all but three states prohibited imprisoned offenders from voting. Thirty-five states disfranchise offenders on probation or parole, and fourteen disfranchise ex-offenders for life. Because a disproportionate share of convicted criminals are non-white, some have argued that such laws constitute a racially discriminatory voting barrier that is as pernicious as poll taxes and literacy tests. Many state criminal disfranchisement laws date back to the Reconstruction era, and such laws were often targeted at offenses for which African Americans were disproportionately convicted. For this reason, some groups have called for the reform or removal of criminal
Although slavery was declared over after the passing of the thirteenth amendment, African Americans were not being treated with the respect or equality they deserved. Socially, politically and economically, African American people were not being given equal opportunities as white people. They had certain laws directed at them, which held them back from being equal to their white peers. They also had certain requirements, making it difficult for many African Americans to participate in the opportunity to vote for government leaders. Although they were freed from slavery, there was still a long way to go for equality through America’s reconstruction plan.
In Michelle Alexander’s talk, she described how discrimination becomes legalized once individuals become branded as a felon. As a result of a felony conviction, tons of offenders lose their right to vote, right to serve on jury, right to be free on legal discrimination regarding housing, and access to education. These restrictions connect to the systems of privilege, as it reinforces the stigma against felons while the social power of law enforcement agencies rises. The systems of privilege get maintained with the use of social control. According to statistics that Alexander gathered, African American males were the ones mostly affected by the felon disenfranchisement laws.
Susan B. Anthony Susan B. Anthony was a suffragist who fought for the right to vote for women. Anthony had several reasons for why a woman should not be deny the right to vote. Some of them being that women are also humans and as humans the constitution secures their rights and those rights could not be taken away. First, when they denied women’s right to vote it implied that they were not humans like every other man.
Felon Disenfranchisement: Is it Constitutional and Should Felons Be Allowed to Vote? Felon disenfranchisement is defined as, “Any convicted felon currently incarcerated or ex-felon now on parole or probation who cannot vote. ”(Brooks, 2005). There are nearly 5.3 million Americans who have been barred from voting due to criminal conviction (Okechukwu, 2022). This is important to consider because the United States is unlike any other democratic country in the world by doing this.
So the ones, who think felon’s or ex-felons should not vote, hold a grudge and begin to despise the idea of allowing a felon to vote. People want to continue with felon disenfranchisement and exclude felons from their own country. Although felons seem to have no morals. In all honesty, they do and they should be allowed at least one right that all Americans are able to share with one another.
“I think the biggest potential impact [of restoring felons’ voting rights] would be changes to the individuals who are elected,-said Bridgett King, a government professor at Auburn University,- You might then see a reversal in the number of state legislatures that are implementing policies to limit options for women’s reproductive
Washington and many other cities celebrated while more than 100,000 blacks paraded through Baltimore, but the victory did not last. While Republicans obtained African American voters in the North, the South was an entirely different situation; Ku Klux Klan and other violent racist groups intimidated black men into voting and those who did vote had their homes burned down, as well as churches and schools (“African Americans,” 2016). A few years later, Southern states required the blacks to pay voting taxes, pass literacy tests and undergo many other unfair restrictions. After 75 years, African American voting rights were once again enforced in the
Moreover, The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Rutgers Law School Constitutional Litigation Clinic have stated that “of the approximately 100,000 parolees and probationers subject to the state 's felon-disfranchisement law, more than 60 percent are African American or Latino, which the ACLU and Rutgers say is in large measure a consequence of racial profiling in the criminal justice system.” Inclusive to what The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Rutgers Law School Constitutional Litigation Clinic have stated, minorities like African American or Latino have been disenfranchised because of racial profiling. The fact that minorities are losing their voice and fundamental right show cases the fact that disenfranchise further institutionalizes racism in the U.S.. Therefore as a progressive nation, disenfranchisement should not be allowed because it promotes racism. Overall ex-convicts should be allowed to vote because post-incarceration voting restrictions are a violation of universally accepted human rights standards and disproportionately excludes
In the Jim Crow context, the presidential election of 1912 was steeply slanted against the interests of black Americans. A majority of African Americans are still settling in the South, where they are currently facing stringent restrictions so they could not vote at all. While
However , there are many controversies going on whether the former criminals to should have the right to vote again. Should they get the right to vote again? No, they should not because ex-cons have shown irresponsibility and dishonesty, they have violated the the rights of others, and they do not value society. According to, Voting Rights: 6 reasons Ex felons should not vote by Jerry Shaw, “Ex prisoners prisoners have demonstrated dishonesty and irresponsibility in their character by committing a crime, especially a serious crime and
But, when these officials were elected to Congress, they passed the “black codes” and thus the relations between the president and legislators became worst (Schriefer, Sivell and Arch R1). These so called “Black Codes” were “a series of laws to deprive blacks of their constitutional rights” that they were enacted mainly by Deep South legislatures. Black Codes differ from a state to another but they were stricter in the Deep South as they were sometimes irrationally austere. (Hazen 30) Furthermore, with the emergence of organizations such as the Red Shirts and the White League with the rise of the Conservative White Democrats’ power, efforts to prevent Black Americans from voting were escalating (Watts 247), even if the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S constitution that gave the Blacks the right to vote had been ratified in 1870.
The judgment of those who have committed serious crimes is not only arguable but untrustworthy. The right to vote should not return to felons upon completing their sentence because, there is no way of knowing if the individual has since improved their character. Ex cons should have to go a certain amount time without committing any sort of crime before voting rights are restored. While some may feel not permitting felons to vote goes against the eighth amendment, not allowing them to vote is in the people’s best
The removal of this right dehumanizes prisoners. The streets of Texas are filled with blue or white collar criminals on bail or simply waiting for their sentence. Presently, if individual are found guilty of a crime, but they are not given a judicial sentence they are still allowed to vote; why should there be treated differently from convicted criminals who are locked up? However, allowing prisoners to vote while in prison would increase voting turnout and also Texas would gain the reputation of becoming one of the two states that allow prisoners to vote while in prison.
" Seem familiar? This was also an issue in 1954, known as brown vs. education and almost 6 decades later, not much has changed. The difference between white and black unemployment is the same as it was in 1963. Michelle Alexander states in The New Jim Crow: "Once you're labeled a felon, the old forms of discrimination—employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, denial of educational opportunity, denial of food stamps and other public benefits, and exclusion from jury service—are suddenly legal. " This being said, they are stating that criminals have more rights than a black man.
Even though the government adopted the Voting Rights Act in 1965, African Americans’ suffrages were still restricted because of southern states’ obstructions. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was important for blacks to participate in political elections, but before this act was passed, there were several events led to its proposal. The government gave African Americans’ the right to vote by passing the 15th Amendment, but in the Southern States, blacks’ suffrages were limited by grandfather clauses, “poll taxes, literacy tests, and other bureaucratic restrictions” (ourdocuments.gov). As times went on, most African Americans couldn’t register their votes.