Keith Ellison (Dirty Liberal-Mpls) has just set Republicans heads a twirl like a liberal exorcist huddled over the body of Linda Blair young priest, old priest style with Dennis Kucinich.
Mark Drake doing his best to sound like a neb said this on the Republican parties behalf,
“Felonies are so serious that there have to be serious consequences,”
Seriously?
Methinks Mr. Drake never walked through a jail.
Surprisingly Ellison has an ally in President Bush on this. The ACLU (in comparing Bushes) wrote this:
“Gov. Bush should follow in his brother’s footsteps and automatically restore the civil rights of felons who have completed all of the conditions of their sentences,”… referring to legislation signed by President George Bush when he was Governor of Texas eliminating the two-year waiting period for felons to automatically restore their rights upon completion of their sentences.
The right to vote is preeminent among all other rights bestowed to Americans. And this bill doesn’t give felons sitting in jail the right to vote, only criminals who have completed their sentences. Keith Ellison did a good deed with this. The patchwork of American history is stitched together by people whose saw America as the land of reborn hope, of second chances. The Puritans; the state of Georgia was founded as a haven for debtors; not to mention the great unwashed masses who viewed America as their promised land. It’s in giving second chances that we validate that history, that we embrace the things that made America great.
And yes, that includes prisoners.
So here goes a great big dirty bleeding heart liberal thumbs up to Keith Ellison.
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I agree with Ellison on this one. It’s important to reintegrate felons into society after they have served their time. I believe Chuck Colson would agree on this one also.
Interesting issue to take on in one’s freshman year. Amy Klobuchar is doing the opposite of Ellison. She is choosing very safe issues to push, ones that appeal to 60% of Minnesotans. Good political strategy, nobody can argue.
Ellison, by stark contrast, is advancing issues that will draw fire and people may have strong opinions on. They also seemingly have come from left field… I, for one, haven’t been troubled in recent years about the lack of felon’s ability to vote. This is really the first I’ve thought of it in years.
Every state has a different standard for letting felons vote. In several states, the person never regains the right to vote. In one state, the person never loses the right to vote and can vote even while in prison.
The rest of us are somewhere in the middle. In MN, once a person has finished probation (called being off paper in the vernacular), he/she regains the right to vote.
While Keith was in the legislature, he worked on this issue as well, trying to change our standard from being off paper to being out of prison. It didn’t pass, in part because it was the year of the Alfonso Rodriguez/Dru Sjodin tragedy. The argument deteriorated into “Do you want Alfonso Rodriguez to be able to vote?” Sad.
But if states could get even to the Minnesota standard, more people could use this great piece of citizenship to start the long road of properly reintegrating into society.
What is truely sad, is that the DFL does this because they know the felons will most likely vote DFL so they want this block of voters approved to vote.
Is there anything the DFL wont do to gain any extra votes?
Sad, just very sad.
Voting felons.
Now there’s an attractive demographic.
Maybe Ellison should wear a sash saying “League of Felon Voters”
See how that plays out.
What a Donk.
BK -
So, is the GOP keeping to suppress these people the right to vote since they would “more likely than not” vote DFL? That sword cuts both ways….
also, fwiw, several books and articles have been written that suggest disfranchised felons would have a voting record similar to the electorate at large. For more information, see just about anything that Chris Grose (Vanderbilt) has written in the last three or four years.
Some of you might want to see what Gov. Charles Crist of Florida is doing in this arena. Florida is one of three states that strips voting rights of convicted felons for life. Gov. Crist is woking to change that. Btw, Gov Crist is a Repub. (While I have not checked up on his efforts recently, it made quite a splash last spring, earning him the ire of Florida’s Atty Gen, Bill McCullum, a former U.S. Rep.)
BK -
So, is the GOP keeping to suppress these people the right to vote since they would “more likely than not” vote DFL? That sword cuts both ways.
No, actually the current law describes what they can and cannot do. Not that laws mean much to DFL’ers.
If it means one more vote for the DFL, they will stoop to any level to retain their power. Ellison is a major joke and I find it funny how so many here are critical of Bachman, but give a free pass to this asshat.
Funny how folks often are so against the idea of allowing felons to vote, but totally in favor of allowing totally under-educated (on the issues) dopes to do it. Furthermore, where is the evidence that “felons” are not still able to have strong political views that make perfect sense? Voting is not a god damn privilege people! It is a right, as a citizen of this country. If you are a citizen, and you take the time to register to vote, you ought to be allowed to vote. Furthermore, there are thousands of people in prisons (the second biggest industry in the country) who were convicted under false pretenses, as can be seen from the dramatic increase in DNA-tested “felons” being released after many years, and convicted for things as asinine as possession of large amounts of pot, for just one example. Many of these people are in prison for 20 years, and the only thing that keeps them sane is furthing their minds while in prison unjustly. Examples of this abound. Are those people somehow less-deserving of a vote than some corporate crook hack who only looks out for his or her personal interest? Please. This crap makes my blood boil!
I’m proud of Keith for this one as well. What good does it to keep depriving people of their rights once their sentence is completed? Felon disenfranchisement is just another way to pin a scarlet “F” on someone, and it serves no purpose.
No criminal will be dissuaded from committing a crime because they might lose their voting rights. no victim of the crime is going to feel better because the criminal can’t vote after getting released.
The only situation this makes any sense at all is in cases of voter fraud. Otherwise there’s no connection at all between the crime and the punishment. I can accept disenfranchisement during incarceration; then a person is functionally removed from society and they shouldn’t have the same say in how the rest of it is conducted. But once they’re back in the world? It’s meaningless.
And it’s only a partisan issue because Democrats are the ones pushing it. No one is trolling for felon votes! Seriously, that’s just idiotic.
I agree with Josh on this one. The only crimes that warrant disfranchisement are the ones having to do with elections and voter fraud - but then that determination should be made by the court in each particular case, not by the legislature tying the courts hands on the issue, not unlike what they have done on the issue of civil commitment (which is a conversation for another day).
Also, studies have indicated that states with less strict disfranchisement laws (i.e. Massachusetts) tend to have a higher voter turnout rate overall than do states with stricter disfranchisement laws (such as Florida). It’s nice to see that Crist is trying to curb this tide and avoiding the pure-partisan mockery of the system that existed under Jeb (where ex-felons, in petitioning to regain their right to vote would be asked questions such as “Do you approve or disapprove of the job the President is doing?,” “Do you work at least 40 hours per week?,” and “Have you ever smoked or consumed alcohol?” Their petition could then be denied by any member of the committee for any reason).
I am so hoping this passes. States basically do what the hell they want. I am a engineer making $150K a year but I can’t vote because of a stupid mistake I made as a 20yr old kid. I am not the same person at 40 as I was at 20. Give me my constitutional rights back dammit!