Restoring Voting Rights to the Disenfranchised

“The State of Black America” makes an incredible argument that the right to vote, a right that is guaranteed to all Americans, is being threatened by voting suppression laws all over the country.

However, there is a small silver lining, states Sean Morales-Doyle, in the restoration of voting rights to a group that’s long been disenfranchised – those with felony convictions.

In an essay published in this year’s “State of Black America,” the acting director for the Brennan Center for Justice, argues that in a surprising move, restoring voting rights to those who have previously been convicted of a felony has now become a somewhat bi-partisan effort. Even in states such as Louisiana, where a bill restoring voting rights passed the Republican-held legislature in 2018. In Iowa, the Republican governor Kim Reynolds took executive action to expand the vote to the convicted.

This history of denying the right to vote to the convicted goes back to this country’s racist past, and when seen through that lens, it makes sense that there is bi-partisan support to restore voting rights. Black men are disenfranchised at 3.7 times higher rate than their non-Black counterparts, and this is not an accident, Morales-Doyle says. In many states, after emancipation, state legislatures passed laws that tried to criminalize Black people. These laws made it incredibly simple to deny the newly emancipated the right to vote.

Morales-Doyle contends that this racist history may be the very reason that there is such bi-partisan support for restoring voting rights to those have been convicted. However, there is still far to go, he says, because even as Florida, a state that had 5 million of its citizens vote for a measure that lifted the lifetime ban on voting for those convicted of a felony, the Florida legislature turned right back around and put serious limitations on that right. Months after passing Amendment 4, the Florida state legislature passed a law that stated that voters who have felony convictions must pay all fees and restitution before being able to vote.

While these measures are incredibly frustrating, Morales-Doyle states, it shows progress. With seven states having voting restoration measures pending in a country that is becoming more divided, restoring voting rights can be seen as a blueprint of how we can move forward without the prejudice of partisanship. 

To read the original essay, please see here.