Election Day is 29 days away. Ballot are printed. Voters are voting. Cases are still pending before the state Supreme Court wrapping up legal challenges. The excitement never seems to stop.
What has stopped for many Mississippians is their ability to cast a vote in the November 4 election. Just over 180,000 Mississippians, most of whom have paid their debt to society, have their voting rights removed unless restored by a lengthly process through the state legislature. Over half of these happen to be black.
Think about that! Just over 8.2 percent of voting age Mississippians, including almost 14 percent of blacks of voting age, cannot vote. This also means Mississippi has the second-highest rate of disenfranchisement behind Florida's rate of just over 10 percent.
If the legislature is looking for proposals to restore fairness to the criminal justice system and our state's elections, it would behoove it to restore voting rights to those who have served their time.
2 comments:
**The sky is falling** **The sky is falling**
Whatever happens, we need to make it fair. The scheme under which we operate is ridiculously difficult to interpret and enforce. For example, I believe the MS Constitution prohibits some misdemeanants from voting. It's simply not clear in so many ways.
The solution is simple. Amend the Constitution. All felons should be prohibited from voting. Or, everyone should be eligible to vote if he (or she) is not under the direct custody or supervision of the Department of Corrections. Very simple. I, of course, favor the latter.
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