Voting Rights Deadlock

The Advertiser notes this morning that Legislators try to bridge gaps [in the budget]. Much of the deadlock currently is over the restoration of voting rights to ex-felons, a bill which caused contention earlier in the year when Riley vetoed it.

Members of the black caucus want restoration of voting rights for felons who have completed their sentences. Riley vetoed a similar measure in the summer at the request of the Republican caucus.
Some Republicans balked at a bill that combined board expansion with rights restoration, preventing House consideration of the $1.2 billion General Fund. That budget must be in place by Oct. 1 to prevent a shutdown of state government.

The raw politics of this is that Democrats assume that the ex-felons will likely vote for their party, and the Republicans believe this as well, hence, I think, much of the vehemence in both the pro- and anti-positions. There are clearly some civil rights and law-and-order issues here as well, but I really have a hard time accepting that either is the overriding issue.

And, to be honest, my guess is that most ex-felons won’t be doing much voting anyway, and certainly not enough to affect elections in a major fashion.

Ultimately, I am not sure why this would be a bad trade-off for the Governor. Indeed, had he not vetoed that bill earlier in the session, he might have had more vigorous support from black democrats for his reform package.

And, to be honest, I am not sure what the argument is for not restoring voting rights once a person has served his or her time. I figure that once your punishment is done, it’s done.

Posted by Steven Taylor at September 21, 2024 02:43 PM | TrackBack