Posted on 10/05/2008 1:56:09 AM PDT by XR7
RICHMOND, Va. - Undaunted by the heat, James Bailey spent his late-summer afternoons walking Virginia's bleakest neighborhoods on the hunt for ex-cons — each a potential voter who might cast the decisive ballot in this hotly contested state.
Finding them isn't the hard part. It's getting them to admit that a past mistake has kept them from the ballot box.
"People are really, really reluctant to say, 'I lost my rights to vote,'" Bailey said of his quest, which continued in the run-up to Monday's registration deadline in Virginia for the November election.
Nationally, there are roughly 4 million released felons whose convictions have cost them the right to vote at least temporarily, if not permanently. To return to the ballot box, felons must negotiate suffrage laws that vary from state to state, in many cases working with election officials who can be both unfamiliar with the law and hostile to former convicts seeking to register.
Such challenges matter little to Bailey and others trying to return former criminals to voter rolls, an effort they consider crucial in light of the results of the past two presidential elections: A shift of a few hundred votes in Florida in 2000 would have changed the outcome of the presidential race, and the results in 2004 came down to a margin of 119,000 votes in Ohio.
Making the push The nonprofit groups and individual activists making the push on felons' behalf agree the effort is broader this year than in previous elections, even if they aren't necessarily making a coordinated push. They expect that effort to benefit Barack Obama more than John McCain, given that the population of former felons is disproportionately black.
Obama has co-sponsored a Senate measure that would allow all ex-felons to vote, but his...
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Yes we can!
Headline says it all!
Could help Obama? LOL! If they vote I can guarantee he will be helped.
Sure letting felons vote would benefit Obama, as would letting Hamas, FARC, Kadaffi, Al Qaeda etc.
Republicans have to stand up and move to bring all the americans who don’t want OUSSABAMA’s liberal-fascism to vote!
Elderlies,working class,independants,and even groups of people which are considered leaning to the OSSABAMA camp...
Abroad in France i have seen during the VP debate party young american students wearing a T-SHIRT printed with the face of the “celebrity” and some of them had not really clear and strong ideas founding their stance and seemed to be able to switch side
My friend knows a woman who has worked 14 days straight signing up the homeless for Obama in Indiana.
...”Obama has co-sponsored a Senate measure that would allow all ex-felons to vote
Yes we can!”...
We have heard this week about the busing of homeless people into Ohio to register and immediately vote and now, Obama is going after the felon vote! Is this Obama Senate measure the “criminal bailout?” One day Americans are going to wake up! The twisting and distorting of decent human values can be tolerated only so long...
...”Obama has co-sponsored a Senate measure that would allow all ex-felons to vote
Yes we can!”...
We have heard this week about the Obama camp busing homeless people into Ohio to register and immediately vote and now, he is going after the felon vote. Is this Obama Senate measure the “criminal bailout?” One day Americans are going to wake up! The twisting and distorting of decent human values can be tolerated only so long...
Ah, the arrogance of hope. It is my understanding that voting (how, who, etc.) is a matter ceded to the individual states by the US Constitution. It is ignorantly arrogant to assume that a mere Congressional law can usurp that right without benefit of a Consitutional Amendment.
Not a felon myself, however in confronting socialist policy in the future, who's to say we might not become one? What if they decide anyone who owns a firearm within a mile of school is committing a felony? That's how easy it could be, and I believe there are similar laws on the books right now.
Yes, maybe most of these folks will vote democrat, however I'm not convinced the one's were concerned about will be able to find the polls without being bused there and promised a dose of crack. Even then, I don't want to forsake the questionable cases on their rights.
Just my humble opinion.
Hmmm . . . let’s make a deal: lengthen the sentences for felons, and let them vote once they get out. Give them a choice: five extra years in jail or keep the limit on voting.
Does Obama want to give them passports too? I thought many felons couldn’t get them.
I dunno. I shouldn’t post before the coffee kicks in.
A convicted felon votes, or a convicted felon owns a gun.
Which is more dangerous?
For the most part those are the only types of people that can stand him.....Obama creeps me out.
So this is what community organizers do?
Either lock them up for life or restore their rights and I mean all of them. You can't be a "half citizen"
Before the flames come pouring in remember, everything from failure to pay child support to murder, is now a felony, its not just violent crimes.
btt
Sure you can. Mentally incompetent people are "half citizens" (your phrase). So are children.
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