Holder wants felons to vote
I wonder who he thinks they will vote for? Let me think about that a while, ahem, tough call.
Eric Holder wants millions of convicted felons to vote, urging states to change existing laws.
Holder Urges States to Repeal Bans on Felons’ Voting:
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Tuesday urged states to repeal laws that prohibit felons from voting, a move that would restore the right to vote to millions of people.
The call was mostly symbolic — Mr. Holder has no authority to enact these changes himself — but it marked the attorney general’s latest effort to eliminate laws that he says disproportionately keep minorities from the polls. “It is unwise, it is unjust, and it is not in keeping with our democratic values,” Mr. Holder said at civil rights conference at Georgetown University. These laws deserve to be not only reconsidered, but repealed.”
African-Americans represent more than a third of the estimated 5.8 million people who are prohibited from voting, according to the Sentencing Project, a research group that favors more liberal sentencing policies. And in Florida, Kentucky, and Virginia, more than one in five African-Americans has lost the right to vote.
There may be a more severe impact on minority communities, but that’s a function of the convictions, not the voting laws.
Perhaps there should be a waiting period, or lifetime exclusions only for certain levels of criminal convictions.
Regardless, I think it’s probably going nowhere.
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Comments
He probably wants to make sure he can still vote, just in case he ever does get what he really deserves.
good point. After he skated blowback from the “Marc Rich debacle”, I’m sure he felt “golden”
Politicians should always try to do things for their base. Nothing unusual here. Move along.
Telling a Felon that it is against the law for him to vote is kind of fruitless. Audits showed that Felons voting illegally probably elected Al Franken to the Senate.
CANNOT possibly make this s**t up!!!
Dr.Jacobson,jeepers, I’m with you on whom that would favor,’Yo. And, the pinheaded, utterly useless Holder would further urge that there be NO Valid ID requirements by those same felons. You know, so there wouldn’t be any Evil Republican voter suppression.
These straws are piling up on the Camel’s back.
I wonder what America will look like after the USA?
It will resemble Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg
So does Rick Santorum, according to his book “It Takes a Family.”
I’ll make you a deal, Erik. When you allow convicted felons to purchase firearms, they can vote. Does that work for you?
Please do not give that delusional racist jerk any more ideas!
My point was intended to show that if Erik is so concerned about the rights of convicted felons, he should be concerned about all their rights… not just the right to vote for democrats.
Well, I suppose there’s a first time for everything. Even actual equal protection under the law.
I wonder who Blago would vote for?
He would first have to advertise his vote for sale on Craigslist.
This is a complex issue. Certainly prisoners should not be allowed to vote. Ex-felons under certain circumstances. Violent felonies probably not. What about for example Robert Tappan Morris, who was convicted of a felony for releasing the internet worm about 20 odd years ago?
Or Randal Schwarz who was convicted, I forget the circumstances. He worked for Intel and overstepped his authorisations on a computer.
Or Jeff Skilling whenever he gets out.
In answer to your question, no they should never be allowed to vote again. Unless you subscribe to a theory that someone could actually commit an “accidental felony”, which is lunacy.
At the very base level, these folks knew they were doing something they shouldn’t do, even if they didn’t know it was a felony.
Also, unless I am mistaken there is already a system in place for them to attempt to get their voting and other rights reinstated, but even if their isn’t, oh well.
This is about personal responsibility, don’t do stuff you know might get you in trouble. We aren’t talking about folks that broke some law that no one knew existed.
Morris released a Worm on the internet, makes it sound so innocuous, he release that worm on the internet with the intent to do harm to others property, no I don’t think he should ever be allowed to vote.
Its a logical consequence, commit a felony and get convicted, which is by no means assured, you lose some basic rights for life. The answer to that is don’t do the crime if you can’t take the punishment.
Also, the best statistic I can find is that about 6000 people are sent to prison each year for a felony conviction. (This number is probably low and doesn’t take into account those convictions that do no lead to prison time.) So lets up the number, lets just be silly about it, lets go with 100,000 felony convictions a year.
So with 100,000 Felony convictions a year, my very first thought is something along the lines of; “Humm, 100k, which means that about 300 MILLION other folks managed not to get convicted of a Felony Crime each year, interesting.”
“… the attorney general’s latest effort to eliminate laws that he says disproportionately keep minorities from the polls …”
… now which minority could that be ? … criminals ?
I wonder if he expects folks convicted of felony-level voter fraud, voter intimidation, voter suppression, etc. will be allowed their voting rights back.
Also, I agree with the comment above: he just wants to ensure he – and his boss – will retain their voting rights if/when they are FINALLY held accountable for all the illegal activities they’ve engaged in, conspired with, and helped facilitate.
To him that wouldn’t be a problem, because in liberal loony land those things only ever happen to minorities and never happen at all, so there is no problem there.
Professor,
There is something to be said for this. Please hear me out. You done the crime but you done the time, there is a legit issue of making the convict whole. He has served his time.
This is the argument I get occasionally. My answer is, “OK, they get their voting rights restored because they should be full citizens again. Then they should get their right to bear arms back, right?”
Generally they look real confused. I a 15 year cop. But if the standard is you get all your rights after you have served your time, then this is included.
Oh, personally I’m not in favor of restoring either.
Felons should absolutely be allowed to vote again. If you want to put a waiting period on it, fine.
Consider the cost of a tiny segment of the population being allowed to vote for a relatively short period of their life.
Now consider the possible benefits of rehabilitating and repatriating some of them.
This is one issue where I agree with Santorum (shudder). But we clearly need to shift our penal system more towards rehabilitation. Not dumping a thug back out on the streets after a few years respite.
How about this for a happy medium? If a felon is behind bars he needs to complete the next degree before he can vote. If a dropout, he needs a HS or GED. Done with HS, get your associates. And so on.
**Ignore the “behind bars” portion of my last PPG.
What if we bundled up all the non-incarceration punishments, lumped them together and made their removal a condition of getting more schooling?
For the more educated felons, tons of community service for the same reinstatements.
So you’re an Obamabot, huh?
I refer to your description of Rick Santorum as someone who makes you shudder. Try to articulate how a decent honorable conservative man such as Santorum makes anyone shudder, other than a depraved leftist.
I’ll be waiting but won’t hold my breath.
I’m certainly not a leftist. I’m for a limited government (Santorum is not). I’m for free-markets. (Santorum is not.)
For those two reasons alone I can’t support him.
Marriage is a religious sacrament that is not granted by the state. If two men decide to share finances and have access to medical records then let them do so (a civil ceremony). It’s not up to the government to care what they do sexually with each other or other people?
I’m for a radically limited government, considerably less redistribution (I’m opposed to the concept of “positive rights”) and I’m a strong supporter of the 2nd A. I don’t think I qualify as a leftist in any way.
I understand his sentiments. Blacks commit maybe half the violent crimes in this country, and that is unfair. (It is also unfair that they don’t make up as large a percentage of the prison populations as would be warranted by their commission of violent crimes). It is also unfair that Blacks have helped perpetuate their state in our country by voting as a block for progressive Dem candidates, who have imposed policies that have effectively destroyed the Black middle and working classes through destroying nuclear families through subsidization of illegitimacy. Most of those Blacks in prison aren’t there because they are Black, but because they grew up without their father in the home. And, politicians like Holder are the reason that happened.
I’m embarrassed to admit that growing up in Arizona and moving to Illinois about 13 years ago, I’m just now realizing that in Illinois felons only loose their right to vote during incarceration. We were taught that if you are convicted of a felony, you lose your right to vote and it is permanent.
I didn’t realize that different states have different laws in this respect.
But this also explains how the machine is allowed to stay in power in Chicago.
You’re behind the learning curve.
In Illinois our felons are the officeholders.
Some states grant felons the right to vote automatically once their parole and probationary periods are passed. Others require felons to apply for the restoration of rights (by state, sometimes other rights are also denied convicted felons).
In most of those states, restoration of rights is relatively perfunctory, assuming the felon has “kept his nose clean.” But it does at least require some positive action on the part of the felon.
Our problem with voting in this country isn’t that not enough people vote. It’s that too many uninformed and disinterested people vote because we’ve made it TOO easy and badger them to GOTV even though they get their news from The Daily Show and never read the news, discuss the issues, or think about policy.
How the heck do you think Obama got elected? We “Rocked the Vote” too often and made it too easy to screw the country.
Of course Holder feels this way. He is a felon too. This whole bunch should not only be IN jail but under it.
Law/Problem: Felons forfeit right to vote.
Liberal fix: Give them back their vote.
Conservative fix: Don’t commit felonies if you want to vote.
One of these ‘fixes’ is easy, accomplished with the stroke of a pen. The other is hard, requiring large segments of the population, both majority and minority, to rethink their choices and clean up their act, a message they need to hear but will not like. All Democrats and half the GOP will support the easy fix if it gains traction in the media/culture.
This is a microcosm of how America got to where she currently is.
Disenfranchising law-abiding citizens. Holder the justice.
this is something I get slammed for a lot but I somewhat agree.
person serves the time (paid the debt to society so to speak) then they should have all rights.
now if they are repeat offenders thats different, I am talking the one who does 1 thing and goes to prison over it.
I agree with Holder, except that before they are allowed to vote, I think a person should be required to pass a rudimentary civics test to indicate that they are at least capable enough to understand the issues that they are voting on. Also, I would forbid any felon from ever voting. Other than those stipulations we are in complete agreement, unless he utters something else nonsensical.
So Holder wants felons to vote?
Well, people in hell want ice water. Girls want their drunken 2:00 am pickups to know their names and to respect them in the morning.
And the Broncos want a better QB next year.
How’bout this one strict provision: ALL violent felons can vote IF, first, they put one arm into an activated wood chipper. That’ll work and it’ll show their commitment.
Basically a felon is a felon because he/she couldn’t make the right decision – didn’t know how to make the right judgment – was inept at making the right call.
How could they possibly direct themselves into making the smart decision with a vote?
It’s not about rights. Any question regarding a felon voting is a dangerous to this country.
Put his *ss in jail.
So Democrats push against any voter identification laws, and are for both amnesty for illegal immigrants as well as felons voting.
Yet, any suspicion of voter fraud is labeled paranoia.
Yep, Joey, and the insipid twits don’t see the whatcha’call IRONY. Or am I meaning Self-Parody??
But, hey, this is the same genius crowd that sees no errrrr humor in the recent stranding by ice of the Antarctic Global Warming research ship…. And, the rescue ship, too, became Ice Stranded. CANNOT—in six lifetimes—Possibly Make This S**T Up!!