Voting - A Right For Everyone? Not According To the Attorney General!

Perusing the headlines this morning I came across this tiny little blurb tucked away in an area which would have been 'under the crease' on a newspaper page. There was Attorney General Eric Holder's picture, and the headline read "Restore voting rights to ex-inmates." I realized it was actually a viewer poll that someone had done on whether or not people who had 'done time' should ever be allowed to vote.  According to Attorney General Holder, "...nearly one in 13 African-American adults is banned from voting." This means 2.2 million black people are kept from voting by these antiquated state statutes...1 in 13 people. In states like Kentucky, Florida, and Virginia, the number is closer to 1 in 5!*

Here are the results of the poll:

Should former inmates have their voting rights restored?

1. 25 %

   Yes; it is a civil liberty.
   64,722 votes
2. 63 %

   No; they lost the right.
   163,433 votes
3. 10 %

   It depends on the person.
   25,318 votes
4. 2 %

   I'm not sure.
   7,021 votes

Total Responses: 260,494

Personally,  I voted #1, yes., give them back the right to vote. Why is it taken away in the first place? I've never understood that; once they do their time, 'pay their debt to society', they're finished, punishment over, right? I mean, why strip them of their rights entirely, permanently, especially if it's a nonviolent offense? I feel like if a person's crime is such that he is released from jail, is not on probation or parole, and is expected to work and pay taxes like any other citizen, then he has the right to vote like any other citizen. If you strip him of a citizen's rights, you are continuing to punish him for a crime he has supposedly 'paid his debt to society' for. You are also punishing the country by reducing the number of voters thereby influencing the outcomes of elections. Those best suited for certain positions may not get elected, while some shady character with more money than brains does, all because such large numbers of people could not come out and vote. These people have to live with the same government that everyone else does; why are they being denied the right to choose who that government consists of?

What do you think about this subject? Do you think ex-inmates should ever be allowed to vote?


* (MSN.com, MSN News, US, Holder urges restoring voting rights to ex-inmates, Retrieved 2/12/2014)