Originally posted by Darkslash
I spent some time researching this issue, as I really didn't have too strong of an opinion before.

After looking it over, I think states are justified in disenfranchising felons, including those who have completed their prison sentence.

The 14th Amendment offers the legal basis for this:


John Locke specified that all humans have, by nature, certain rights -- but he also specified that we can lose those rights by breaking the social contract with his fellow citizens by committing a crime.

A felon has broken society's rules. Is is not unreasonable for that society to bar said felon from determining those rules, or electing those who enforce them?

If we can deprive someone of their right to liberty by placing them in prison, certainly we can deprive them of their right to vote. I would think a loss of liberty is a greater punishment.
To me, a loss of voting rights is a loss of liberty. You no longer have any say in your government; any law can be passed against you without any legislative representation in your defense. Taxes can be taken from you, but you would have no say in how that money will be spent, or even how much should be taken. These laws don't allow for convicted felons to become good, contributing members of society. Instead, they assign them a blanket, life-long punishment of seperation from how their society will be run before even being given the chance to change.

Taking away an ex-felon's right to vote removes one of the five pillars of democracy: minority rights. Though majority opinion makes the rules, minority groups must be guaranteed certain rights lest they be wiped out by the majority. By not allowing all ex-felons to vote, those who have committed felonies and served their time effectively become a minority group, as they have absolutely no way of escaping such a label. This group has no say in how their government will be run. Thus, the rest of society is able to pass any law that they choose against ex-felons. Society could decide to tax an ex-felon's income 50%, or heck, maybe 98%. It could also decide to require ex-felons to wear tracking devices, be sterilized, etc... (These are laws that have been or are currently in legislation). Because those who are having the laws passed upon them have no legislative representation, they have very little defense against such actions of society. Society would be able to, in effect, "Wipe out" those who have served their time in prison for felonies. This would, of course, be an excessive punishment for many of the felonies that people have served time for, such as possession of marijuana, mail fraud, etc... I also don't like that this punishment is executed by legislation instead of the judicial branch (ie, I think that if anyone is to take the right to vote away, it should be the court systems.)

Also, it just doesn't provide a felon a chance to turn over a new leaf. One of the goals of prison is to turn a law-breaking citizen into a law-abiding, contributing member of society. If our prison system has any effectiveness whatsoever, then at least a few of these people coming out of prison should be rehabilitated. I see no point in not allowing a law-abiding, contributing member of society to be able to vote. Plus, many of the felons that get out of prison and want to vote are probably those who have been "Corrected" to some degree, as they want to contribute something to how their government will be run.

Regardless of all of that, I feel that once a person has served their prison sentence, they have made even with society, and society has no right to not treat them as normal citizens.