Why being a felon and not having the right to vote is a problem in America

They are over 327 million (and counting) people in the United States. Imagine if ⅓ of that population lost their right to vote because of a felony conviction; that is over 109,980,705 citizens who cannot vote. Of course, this proportion exaggerates what is really true but illustrates the point that taking voting rights away from felons, who do make up a larger percent of the population that people think, could really sway the results of elections. Aside from this, on a more philosophical level, people who are convicted of felonies are no less of a person, regardless of their crime, than anyone else and they should not be stripped away their constitutional right to vote.

Not letting felons vote can, in fact, shift the outcome of an election. Kwame Akosan, a justice works fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, has hypothesized, “Imagine if nearly every adult citizen living in the Miami-Dade County in Florida lost their right to vote.” That is roughly 1.5 million people who have been deprived of their voting rights in Florida. States’ felony convicted criminal population shifts the outcome of people voting and causes a domino effect of a certain party to get that electoral college vote for that state. If you have served or are currently serving your felony sentence(s) you are paying back your debts to society.

When a person commits a felony offense they have committed a serious nature of crime and are therefore sentenced to prison. Citizens who consume a lot of time in jail are there to relearn the “okays” of society. Once a person has served their time he/she has learned and been disciplined enough to return to the outside population. Serving time in prison is paying your debt to society and is its own form of retribution. President of the United States, Barack Obama, agrees, having said in a July 14, 2015 speech, “While the people in our prisons have made some mistakes ... they are also Americans and we have to make sure that as they do their time and pay back their debts to society, we are increasing the possibility that they can turn their lives around.” Rescinding the freedom of voting away is like taking the last piece of a puzzle and throwing it away; it affects the outcome of the entire picture. States might have reasons to punish more harshly for violent crimes, but there is no plausible reason to strip their right to vote away.

There is no study, no informative graph and no statistics proven that felons not having the right to vote has made a positive impact on elections. Jeff Manza, Ph.D., a professor of Sociology at New York University and author of the 2006 book Locked-Out: Felon, states, “While states have legitimate reasons to compel felons to make restitution ... there are no logical reasons for imposing disenfranchisement in such cases.” Serving your time in prison is paying your debts to society so hence when you get released, you should attain all your privileges back including your constitutional right to vote.

Furthermore, restricting felons from voting is arguably unconstitutional. The fifteenth amendment contains these words: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” No persons should be left out of voting because of a crime, excluding the reason and details of the crime. As Pete D., Airport High School student, says, “I feel like they should get the right to vote because they are US citizens.”

However, some people would disagree. It is often expressed that felons should not have the right to vote. Daniel Bailey, for one, Airport High School teacher and student government sponsor explains, “If you are charged with a felony offense that means you have either affected the right or violated the rights of someone or something else therefore that right comes with a great deal of responsibility and if you cannot use that responsibility responsibly i feel as though you should not have the right to vote.” Despite this line of argumentation, when convicted felons serve their time, they have already compensated their debts to society. Having the opportunity to be released to the public domain should also acquire your voting rights back. Some people argue that prisoners of felony convicted crimes also don’t have the “competence” to have the advantage to vote and do not want criminals with bad judgement voting. So why would we let murderers, drug dealers, sex traffickers, kidnappers and other scandalous people vote in our elections? Well vast majorities of ex inmates who get to vote do not commit crimes. Also, you don’t have to be a felon to have zero “competence.” Many people interact with cults, are homophobic, and racists, and they lack a lot capacity too. So what makes them any different from a felon who’s just trying to turn their life around? Anyone could be a felon but that doesn’t mean you will lack good judgement.

Hypothetically, the 109,980,705 convicted felons could have made the outcome of the 2016 and other elections different. The number of felons not only would have an impact on the elections, it would also have an economic significance as well. The mass population of felons in and out of prison should not be denied the right to vote when in or already completed the process of rehabilitation.