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Court Tosses Washington Voting Ban for Felons
Implications for Voting Rights in Other States
A federal appeals court overturned Washington state's ban on voting by convicted felons Tuesday in a ruling that could extend ballots to prisoners in other states where studies showed racial bias in the criminal justice system.
(photo by flickr user Daquella manera) In a 2-1 decision, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said the Washington law violates the federal Voting Rights Act because evidence showed discrimination against minorities at every level of the state's legal system: arrest, bail, prosecution and sentencing.
If the ruling survives, it will be binding in the circuit's other eight states, including California, which denies voting rights to 283,000 convicted felons in prison or on parole, according to a report from the nonprofit Sentencing Project.
About 114,000 are African Americans, who are disenfranchised at seven times the rate of the general population, the report said.
Among those in Washington state who commit crimes, "minorities are more likely than whites to be searched, arrested, detained and ultimately prosecuted," Judge A. Wallace Tashima said in the appeals court's majority opinion.
For example, he said, studies showed that African Americans in Washington were more than nine times as likely to be in prison as whites and 70 percent more likely to be searched, even though a study of one police department found that officers were more likely to find contraband when searching whites.
Findings were similar for Latinos and Native Americans, none of which could be explained by differences in crime rates, Tashima said.
The Voting Rights Act "demands that such racial discrimination not spread to the ballot box," he said.
Dissenting Judge Margaret McKeown said the court should have told a trial judge to reconsider the Washington law based on an amendment last year that made it easier for paroled felons to vote.
She also said the court was relying too much on statistics and should consider other factors, such as minority access to the political process, before finding racial discrimination.
The ruling is the first by an appeals court to overturn a state's prohibition on voting by felons, which exists in different versions in every state except Maine and Vermont.
Imprisoned felons of all races would become eligible to vote if the courts concluded, based on studies like those in Washington, that a state's justice system was racially skewed.
The studies "concluded what a lot of people feel, that a disproportionate amount of minorities are convicted of crimes even though there might be the same amount of crimes committed by the white population," said attorney Lawrence Weiser, who directs the legal clinic at Gonzaga Law School. He has worked on the Washington case since a group of minority prisoners filed suit over the law in 1996.
A state appeals court in San Francisco upheld California's voting law last year. Three other federal appeals courts have ruled that the Voting Rights Act does not apply to bans on voting by felons.
"Part of being a good citizen is obeying the laws and not doing things to other citizens that are so egregious that you end up in prison," said Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed, who promised an appeal of the ruling. "If you do, you are going to be denied your right to participate as a full citizen in our society."
But Ryan Haygood of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said the evidence showed that minorities and whites who committed crimes in Washington aren't treated equally. Allowing felons to vote benefits everyone, he said, because "participation legitimizes democracy."
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14 Comments so far
Show All["Part of being a good citizen is obeying the laws and not doing things to other citizens that are so egregious that you end up in prison," said Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed, who promised an appeal of the ruling. ]
The everbashing boot over the face of humanity...
I thought the purpose of the criminal being placed in jail was to protect society from the violent offender (what's this crap about putting non-violent people in jail coming from anyhow???), and to give the offender a chance to re-pay his/her debt to society. Sure the ex-con is always going to have trouble getting a job after his time in jail, so why rub salt in the wound and tell them that they can never vote, never serve on a jury, never think about running for office... Sure, it's not a perfect system, but we're not gods so designing a perfect system is going to be beyond us - heck it's beyond any god given the lack of any sort of 'perfect' system in existence today.
What Sammy boy wants is to have a system where the criminal is punished as long as he lives. Doesn't matter to him that the guy got out of jail at 19 after serving 6 months for a non-violent felony and has never talked to a cop in the thirty years since then, he's a danger to society and letting him vote would be like killing a fluffy kitten.
Agree with you; and consider this. When the judge sentences someone, do they say:
"You have been judged guilty and will serve 6 months in jail as punishment for your crime."
or
"You have been judged guilty and will serve 6 months in jail and you lose your voting right for the rest of your life (or other period of time)".
I believe it is the first and the problem with that is that the politically influenced legislatures are imposing punishments that don't fit the crimes. A judge has discretion on jail terms but not on the voting rights.
Good!
Silly rule....easily abused.
You could make being a republican illegal, then deny them the vote, if you had enough of a majority.
"Part of being a good citizen is obeying the laws and not doing things to other citizens that are so egregious that you end up in prison," said Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed,"
When will you indict Mr. Bush, Cheney and a few other notable mass murdering war criminals?
Oh, I guess only the poor, disenfranchised, and politically impotent get shaft of the law.
in would be interesting to see what other western countries do with the voting rights of those convicted of crimes. i bet we are far more punitive here. we're in the habit of making sure everyone can identify the failures of the world; i call this the "scarlet letter" syndrome. those with wealth are shiny evidence of "having beeen blessed" in america, that "shining city on the hill", as reagan called us. what good, after all, is there in achieving success unless it can be highlighted by the abject failure of others? i think this mentality works into the extemely competitive thread of american culture, which demands that rewards and punishments, and successes and failures, be known, the open scorecard, so to speak. watch out the next time you hear a politician like senator bob corker of tennesse say, "I've been blessed", as the unstated premise is that god favored senator corker and maybe not you, as he was making his millions through shady deals and corporate welfare. lucky that some washington insiders already have his number.
In Canada serving and former prisoners can vote in Federal elections [despite our mini-Bush Prime Minister's attempt at changing that.
I may be mistaken but I believe they can also vote in Provincial elections [but again our resurgent reich-wing is against that too].
COOL! Now we can have ex-felons voting for uncaptured felons!!!
"You could make being a republican illegal, then deny them the vote, if you had enough of a majority."
Guess what....that's EXACTLY what the Repugnants have been trying (and mostly succeeding) to do for the last several decades to ANYONE who might possibly vote Democratic!!! (Like removing over 50,000 mostly African-Americans from the Florida voter rolls in 2000.)
The solution?
UNIVERSAL VOTER REGISTRATION !!!!!!!!!
Automatic at 18 years.....what is so hard about that?
But guess what, the Repugs would then be a minority party, like forever! It is so clearly unconstitutional to take away a citizen's rights forever for committing a crime.
And yeah, the Bush/Cheney junta should ALL be in prison, and thus lose their right to vote!
>>Automatic at 18 years.....what is so hard about that?<<
Nothing. That's the problem. People might actually vote instead of being turned off by having to register as part of the duopoly or weak as shit third parties. No wonder people don't vote even if registered.
Gary
How about a BYOB Party?
"...because evidence showed discrimination against minorities at every level of the state's legal system: arrest, bail, prosecution and sentencing."
Now lemme see if I got this right. There's bias in the legal system, yet the same legal system instead of addressing that, gives convicted felons the right to vote. Not that they shouldn't be allowed to vote, but isn't it more important to work on removing the alleged discrimination? Typical government mixed up priorities again.
Ain't that grand? Ex-convicts get to vote now. As if voting meant anything. Ha!
Part of the plan to control the black vote .
Don't let them vote.
Not that it makes any difference in the USA where Democrat and Republican are same same.
US Democracy means getting to vote for 1 of 2 identical parties.
They might promise different things but you get the same.
They both prefer War over looking after their own people.