California Governor Allows Felons to Vote from
Prison, by Alice Greene 10/3/16
This Wednesday, California
Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill allowing felons awaiting release to vote
from their prison cells – a move that he claims will ease their transition back
into normal society.
The bill will allow
thousands of felons to vote in California’s elections, and opponents worry that
these votes could impact the outcome of a close race.
Backers like Daniel
Zingale, Senior VP of The California Endowment Helath Foundation, argue that
mass disenfranchisement must come to an end, and denying felons the right to
vote “is a tragic legacy of the Jim Crow era that disproportionately affects
and diminishes the power of communities of color.” What Zingale seems to
be missing here is that not all California felons are black.
“It is very disappointing
that felons still serving their sentences behind bars will now be able to vote
since Governor Brown failed to veto this really bad bill,” laments California
Senator Patricia Bates.
As we wrote in April,
Governor Terry McAuliffe has engaged in a similar effort to restore voting
rights to criminals in Virginia. McAuliffe, a close friend of Hillary
Clinton, plans to restore voting rights to nearly 200,000 former felons just in
time to register for the November elections. In his last move, he personally
restored voting rights to 13,000 criminals.
Congressional Democrats
have followed suit with a bill that will give criminals back their voting
rights upon release from prison, and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) is pushing to
restore voting rights to non-violent offenders.
“It would be transformative
if everybody [in the nation] voted,” said President Obama. Sure, transformative in handing Hillary the
throne.
Author's
Note: The logic behind why felons
are not allowed to vote is sketchy: on the one hand, it seems a crime to deny a
constitutional right to an American citizen; on the other hand, a felon has
clearly shown bad faith with the nation and should not get a voice in
elections.
Nonetheless, Governor Brown
should be ashamed of himself for pushing such a blatantly partisan bill.
http://punchingbagpost.com/california-governor-allows-felons-to-vote-from-prison
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