Michael E. Arth on Restoring Felons' Voting Rights

Currently, nearly a million Floridians are denied voting rights because of felony convictions. This is yet another way in which our dysfunctional voting system disenfranchises our citizens. Most people in U.S. prisons are incarcerated because of issues either directly related to, or growing out of the racist and cynical War on Drugs, which is a war on the poor, and therefore a war on democracy and equality. Our incarceration rate in Florida is 8 times higher than in Canada, mostly because of drug policy. I do not believe that prisoners should ever lose their voting rights, because teaching prisoners about responsible citizenship and how to be part of a representative democracy should be part of the rehabilitation process. Once a prisoner is released he or she should be encouraged in every way to reenter society and be a useful, productive citizen. Voting is an important part of this process.

I also believe that all citizens should have their voting rights restored. I have a bumper sticker that says, "If voting could change anything it would be illegal." Voting, in any meaningful sense of the word, actually is illegal because we are denied fair elections because of the role that money and our winner-take-all voting system plays in politics. To solve these problems we need to have systemic electoral reform that does away with paid lobbyists and paid political advertising. Reform should also take money out of the electoral process, and replace winner-take-all with ranked choice majority voting. Then, democracy itself would be released from prison and voting rights for all of us would be restored.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Michael E. Arth
• restoring felon voting rights
• electoral reform
• voting
• war on drugs
• Florida gubernatorial election
• winner-take-all

[world237]

Life is hard as a felon. I was 18 years old when I was convicted of felony theft

[usintelreport]

i voted for you Arth

[centroaj]

You're making some sense. At 22 years of age, I lost my right to vote after a felony DWI conviction. I was arrested twice within 5 years for driving while intoxicated. No accidents or other laws were broken in the process. Repaying my debt to society wasn't enough, I now have the permanent stain on my future of being a convicted felon. This restricts my right to vote as well as my potential to being a functional member of society.