These laws date from back in the days when white property owning (etc.) males were the only ones allowed to vote. They're pretty stupid, and they keep approximately two percent of the population from being able to vote--a sizeable number, when you look at how close the last couple elections have been.
Right now, prisons get counted funny--Putnam County, Indiana, where i went to college, is considered to be the second poorest county in Indiana because the Putnamville Correctional Facility (aka the State Farm) is there, and those prisoners get counted in the U.S. Census as Putnam County residents. (They also don't have much income to speak of.) I imagine if that's considered your county of residence, that makes it your voting place. There are roughly 2,400 inmates at the Farm; the town of Putnamville is nowhere near that size, and as someone noted above, the inmates at the Farm would absolutely overwhelm the local government. While the absentee ballot idea is a reasonable one, it doesn't work that well in practice; your inmates at the Farm have simply committed their crimes in Indiana, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're from Indiana. So now you have prison administrators trying to track down voter registration forms from all over the country, and so on; i'm not saying it's impossible, but it's difficult.
Anyway. A lot of the current disenfranchisement is rooted in past racism, of course; disenfranchisement stayed on the books as a means of keeping blacks from being able to vote even after they were awarded the opportunity to do so. It's also reflected in sentencing disparities, as someone else noted above--cocaine in powdered form nets you a misdemeanor, while cocaine in rock form a felony. The African-American population is also disproportionately incarcerated, especially males, and so while 2% of the general US population is disenfranchised, the number is roughly 13% among black males.
Finally, it varies from state to state, and the protection of disenfranchisement has been held up as a states' rights issue. What's important to note is that (as of 2004) there are only 13 states that have disenfranchised felons for life; the others tend to only extend it to prison, parole and probation, although things vary there as well. That said, it's still one of the stupidest laws still on the books, and very deserving of being overturned.
(I'm feeling a bit durrrr, like i'm not able to put my point together coherently. To sum up, disenfranchisement baaaaaaaaaad!)
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yati
no subject
Date: 2008-10-22 10:40 pm (UTC)Right now, prisons get counted funny--Putnam County, Indiana, where i went to college, is considered to be the second poorest county in Indiana because the Putnamville Correctional Facility (aka the State Farm) is there, and those prisoners get counted in the U.S. Census as Putnam County residents. (They also don't have much income to speak of.) I imagine if that's considered your county of residence, that makes it your voting place. There are roughly 2,400 inmates at the Farm; the town of Putnamville is nowhere near that size, and as someone noted above, the inmates at the Farm would absolutely overwhelm the local government. While the absentee ballot idea is a reasonable one, it doesn't work that well in practice; your inmates at the Farm have simply committed their crimes in Indiana, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're from Indiana. So now you have prison administrators trying to track down voter registration forms from all over the country, and so on; i'm not saying it's impossible, but it's difficult.
Anyway. A lot of the current disenfranchisement is rooted in past racism, of course; disenfranchisement stayed on the books as a means of keeping blacks from being able to vote even after they were awarded the opportunity to do so. It's also reflected in sentencing disparities, as someone else noted above--cocaine in powdered form nets you a misdemeanor, while cocaine in rock form a felony. The African-American population is also disproportionately incarcerated, especially males, and so while 2% of the general US population is disenfranchised, the number is roughly 13% among black males.
Finally, it varies from state to state, and the protection of disenfranchisement has been held up as a states' rights issue. What's important to note is that (as of 2004) there are only 13 states that have disenfranchised felons for life; the others tend to only extend it to prison, parole and probation, although things vary there as well. That said, it's still one of the stupidest laws still on the books, and very deserving of being overturned.
(I'm feeling a bit durrrr, like i'm not able to put my point together coherently. To sum up, disenfranchisement baaaaaaaaaad!)