Currently, Blacks make up about 14 percent of the population, but they represent roughly one third of ineligible individuals unable to vote because of criminal convictions. The current Losing the Vote: The Impact of Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States , by The Sentencing Project and Human Rights Watch, 1998 and Regaining the Vote: An Assessment of Activity Relating to Felon Disenfranchisement Laws , by Patricia Allard and Marc Mauer of The Sentencing Project, 2000. These reports claimed 13% of African-American men in the United States (1.4 million) are disenfranchised, representing over 36% of the total disenfranchised population. They claimed that this figure would continue or increase since over 50 percent of America's prisoners are black.
African American adult males are 7 times the national average. 10 states disenfranchise more than 1 in 5 adult African Americans; in 7of these states; 1 in 4 African Americans are permanently disenfranchised. The report currently estimates that at present rates of incarceration, three in ten of the next generation of African American men will lose their voting rights at some point in their lifetime. In states with the most restrictive voting laws, 40 percent of African American men are likely to be permanently disenfranchised.
It was painfully obvious that Congress needed to add a provision to the new Voting Rights Act signed into law on July 27, 2006, renamed The Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, And Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act Of 2006. A logical reason for not adding any kind of provisions would be there continuous need to silence the small African Americans community within this great nation. When incarcerated we are stripped of our power and our problems/concerns are never heard. Our issues become unnoticed and unchanged, eventually becoming obsolete to those of power. Therefore, the history of oppression and discrimination becomes redundant and the cycle continues.
How do we restore the rights of so many disenfranchised individuals? Former Virginia Governor Mark Warner was the most recently successful in the restoration process for his state. Warner restored the right to vote to 1,885 ex-convicts in time for the November 2006 elections. Currently, this is the highest in Virginia's modern history. Warner, a Democrat, simplified the process by cutting down a 14-page petition to one page, “I do not believe ex-offenders should face unnecessary hurdles when they are making a positive, good-faith effort to return to productive citizenship,” stated Warner. Most states automatically restore a felon's right to vote once he or she has completed a sentence, paid fines and made restitution.
In practice, this possibility is usually illusory. When seeking to have the vote restored, few have the financial and political resources needed to succeed. The change for restoration was currently urged by Governor of Florida Charlie Crist, a Republican, “I believe in simple human justice and that when somebody has paid their debt to society, it is paid in full,” stated Crist.
So, what could we do to promote change? By educating, the African American community on the importance of voting and restoring their right to vote after incarceration is finished could promote change. African Americans could stress the importance of this vital issue to all politicians who claim to want and need their vote in any upcoming elections. Presently African Americans could write their governors and local politicians requesting automatic restoration after incarceration is complete or another alternative that would simplify the restoration process for former convicted felons.
On a political level, congress could limit the denial of voting rights to those actually serving prison sentences, not those on probation, parole, or former convicted felons. Congress could establish a connection between the severity of a crime and denial of voting rights, so that only the worst offenders lose the right to vote. Finally, congress could allow a panel of ones peers in having the discretion in taking away voting right.
Nevertheless, creating a system under which those who have completed their obligation of rehabilitation are notified encouraged, and helped throughout the process of restoring their right to vote would be extremely adequate. Voting is a right that defines all citizens. Those individuals who have paid their debt to society should have their right to vote restored immediately after their time is severed.
Martin Luther King once wrote, "No nation can long continue to flourish or to find its way to a better society while it allows any one of its citizens to be denied the right to participate in the most fundamental of all privileges of democracy -- the right to vote." At the time - 1965 - King was referring to the need for a law that would ensure the right of all African Americans to vote. Unfortunately this can still be applied today, People wake up!
