It shows which states allowing prisoner voting, parolee voting, ex-con voting, etc.
As to why they can't vote? One belief (not personally my own) is that because they've committed a crime, regardless of the fact that they were punished and served the appropriate time, etc, by committing that crime they chose to remove themselves from the norms of society, and so even though they are now back in society, they should be punished by having the right to vote taken away...kind of society's way of punishing them after the criminal justice system is done.
I always found it rediculous myself. I understand not letting parolees vote. Parolees are stripped of many rights as a condition of their release. I've got no problem if voting is one of those rights. But once a prisoner has fully done his time, and is off parole, there is no reasonable excuse, in my mind, for why they shouldn't be allowed to vote.
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yati
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Date: 2008-10-22 06:32 pm (UTC)It shows which states allowing prisoner voting, parolee voting, ex-con voting, etc.
As to why they can't vote? One belief (not personally my own) is that because they've committed a crime, regardless of the fact that they were punished and served the appropriate time, etc, by committing that crime they chose to remove themselves from the norms of society, and so even though they are now back in society, they should be punished by having the right to vote taken away...kind of society's way of punishing them after the criminal justice system is done.
I always found it rediculous myself. I understand not letting parolees vote. Parolees are stripped of many rights as a condition of their release. I've got no problem if voting is one of those rights. But once a prisoner has fully done his time, and is off parole, there is no reasonable excuse, in my mind, for why they shouldn't be allowed to vote.