Letting Out the Vote

Campus Report ^ | November 11, 2008 | Malcolm A. Kline

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Letting Out the Vote

by: Malcolm A. Kline, November 11, 2008

The youth vote finally turned out in significant numbers in the last presidential election but the manner in which these idealistic students are spreading their political capital, egged on by organizers—national and community—may not be the best way to “leave the planet a better place than they found it.”

“From sluggish recovery to a struggling criminal justice system, incredible problems continue to face gulf coast residents following Katrina and Rita,” Ian Harris, a student at American University’s Washington College of Law said recently. Harris is the lead organizer for Student Activists for KatrinaRita Survivors (SAKS). SAKS received a $1,000 grant from Campus Progress “to raise awareness in the American University community of the ongoing human rights abuses occurring on the Gulf Coast following the hurricanes of 2005 and the most recent devastation caused by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.”

One of the “human rights” that such activists concern themselves with is the voting privilege that convicted felons lose when tried and sentenced. Traditionally, that is part of the punishment courts levied on such criminals.

Until recently, convicts were denied the right to vote even when their sentences were up. Most assuredly, they lost the franchise when behind bars.

Indeed, even now, many states are routinely purging voter rolls of convicted felons, such as the state of Washington, which is not known for being particularly rock- ribbed on crime or many other social issues although the commonwealth of Virginia, under Governor Kaine has added a couple of thousand felons to voting rolls in every election cycle.....