Now That The Elections Are Over, It's Time To Re-vistit The Issue Of "Restoring Voting Rights After Felony Convictions".
Restoring voting rights after felony convictions
Since 2007 a few Republicans in Senate leadership have single handedly blocked House Bill 70, the Restoration of Voting Rights Act. HB 70 would put on the ballot an initiative to automatically restore the right to vote to former felons who have completed their full sentences. Currently Kentuckians with any type of felony conviction are permanently prohibited from voting. This sweeping policy excludes everyone, people like Jason Smith, 32, from Elizabethtown who was caught at age 18 with a half ounce of marijuana and an improperly stowed handgun. Fourteen years later, he is a parent, who graduated college and works as a counselor; doesn’t he deserve a second chance? You can read other examples at http://gooddemocracyky.org.
The lifetime disenfranchisement of individuals with felony convictions is based on the antiquated notion that certain groups of people are categorically unfit for the franchise, that is, the right to vote. Not just former felons were barred from the ballot, the Kentucky Constitution at one time further prohibited “negros, mulattoes and Indians” from the franchise. The latter groups have had their civil rights restored and though these reforms were adopted some time ago one has to question if these sorts of common sense revisions would have been supported by many of our politicos today.
Furthermore, this section of our constitution was drafted at a time when a felony conviction was rare and reserved for society’s most serious crimes. Yet over time the threshold to obtain a felony conviction in Kentucky has been significantly eroded. These days the frequency of a felony conviction is frequent. Just last year the legislature was forced to reform our penal code as our onerous criminal justice system is crippling the commonwealth, particularly in terms of spending. In the last 10 years, Kentucky has boasted one of the fastest growing prison populations in the country despite a flat crime rate that is lower than the national average. We have criminalized the commonwealth.
We have as a country, always struggled to balance the demands of the majority, or often a powerful minority, with the fundamental right of individual liberty; the concepts are historically at odds with one another. The individual liberty here is, undoubtedly, the most fundamental right prescribed to any person residing in a free country. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black in Wesberry v. Sanders summed it up, “No right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live. Other rights, even the most basic are illusionary if the right to vote is undermined. Our constitution leaves no room for classification of people in a way that unnecessarily abridges this right.”
In a state of more than 4 million people just a few state senators have unfairly thwarted democracy. HB 70 would amend the Kentucky constitution, so the people of the commonwealth must vote on it. Ultimately the decision is ours. A handful of leaders refuse, year after year, to give us access to what should be considered a sacred American right, suffrage. Senate leadership believes the residents of this commonwealth are not equipped with the sophisticated level of competency to navigate through these sorts of tough, complicated policy decisions.
Perhaps Senate leadership and in particular the chair of the state and local government committee, Damon Thayer (who personally refuses to give the bill a hearing), knows what we know; that the majority of Kentuckians support restoration of voting rights. Liberty should never be arbitrarily denied, particularly at the whim of a politician’s self interest. This election season should remind all elected and unelected politicians that it is their constituents who put them where they are and deference is long past due.
KATE MILLER
American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky
Louisville 40202
Since 2007 a few Republicans in Senate leadership have single handedly blocked House Bill 70, the Restoration of Voting Rights Act. HB 70 would put on the ballot an initiative to automatically restore the right to vote to former felons who have completed their full sentences. Currently Kentuckians with any type of felony conviction are permanently prohibited from voting. This sweeping policy excludes everyone, people like Jason Smith, 32, from Elizabethtown who was caught at age 18 with a half ounce of marijuana and an improperly stowed handgun. Fourteen years later, he is a parent, who graduated college and works as a counselor; doesn’t he deserve a second chance? You can read other examples at http://gooddemocracyky.org.
The lifetime disenfranchisement of individuals with felony convictions is based on the antiquated notion that certain groups of people are categorically unfit for the franchise, that is, the right to vote. Not just former felons were barred from the ballot, the Kentucky Constitution at one time further prohibited “negros, mulattoes and Indians” from the franchise. The latter groups have had their civil rights restored and though these reforms were adopted some time ago one has to question if these sorts of common sense revisions would have been supported by many of our politicos today.
Furthermore, this section of our constitution was drafted at a time when a felony conviction was rare and reserved for society’s most serious crimes. Yet over time the threshold to obtain a felony conviction in Kentucky has been significantly eroded. These days the frequency of a felony conviction is frequent. Just last year the legislature was forced to reform our penal code as our onerous criminal justice system is crippling the commonwealth, particularly in terms of spending. In the last 10 years, Kentucky has boasted one of the fastest growing prison populations in the country despite a flat crime rate that is lower than the national average. We have criminalized the commonwealth.
We have as a country, always struggled to balance the demands of the majority, or often a powerful minority, with the fundamental right of individual liberty; the concepts are historically at odds with one another. The individual liberty here is, undoubtedly, the most fundamental right prescribed to any person residing in a free country. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black in Wesberry v. Sanders summed it up, “No right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live. Other rights, even the most basic are illusionary if the right to vote is undermined. Our constitution leaves no room for classification of people in a way that unnecessarily abridges this right.”
In a state of more than 4 million people just a few state senators have unfairly thwarted democracy. HB 70 would amend the Kentucky constitution, so the people of the commonwealth must vote on it. Ultimately the decision is ours. A handful of leaders refuse, year after year, to give us access to what should be considered a sacred American right, suffrage. Senate leadership believes the residents of this commonwealth are not equipped with the sophisticated level of competency to navigate through these sorts of tough, complicated policy decisions.
Perhaps Senate leadership and in particular the chair of the state and local government committee, Damon Thayer (who personally refuses to give the bill a hearing), knows what we know; that the majority of Kentuckians support restoration of voting rights. Liberty should never be arbitrarily denied, particularly at the whim of a politician’s self interest. This election season should remind all elected and unelected politicians that it is their constituents who put them where they are and deference is long past due.
KATE MILLER
American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky
Louisville 40202
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posted by KYJurisDoctor at 7:57 AM
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