voter disenfranchisement
Both Parties Must Protect Integrity of Vote
SINCE the 2000 election, those who have been close to voting issues have been intensely concerned about the integrity of the vote. However, there has been scant coverage of this issue in the major media and, perhaps reflecting this, little interest by the broad public. Moreover, few elected officials of either major party are willing to address what is, without a doubt, the major political issue of the day.
Criminal Disenfranchisement
Two hundred years ago, most Americans -- including unpropertied men, women (propertied or not), African Americans, soldiers, illiterates, and non-English-speakers -- could not vote. Today, there's just one group that, as a matter of law, is routinely barred from voting: felons.
Progress, certainly. But that remaining restriction -- "criminal disenfranchisement" -- is a doozy. About four million U.S. citizens are now barred from voting because of a criminal conviction. The majority of these people are not incarcerated -- either because they're on probation or parole, or because they've completed all elements of their sentence. The United States not only executes more offenders than does any other democracy, but it is the only democracy that indefinitely bars so many criminals from voting.
