Wisconsin: Disenfranchisement Back on the Radar
State legislators are once again considering a bill that would restore voting rights to 40,000 residents with felony convictions on their record, Wisconsin Public Radio reported. According to state elections board director Kevin Kennedy, the bill would also save about $13,000 by eliminating the need to produce lists for poll workers to check.
State Representative Joe Parisi, who supports the bill, recently chaired an Assembly Committee on Corrections and the Courts and stated,"We heard convincing testimony that not only are African-Americans incarcerated and charged with felonies at an unacceptably high rate compared to other Wisconsinites, but also that this institutionalized bias robs the African-American community of a voice in our democratic process. The Capital Times applauded his stance, giving him "high, high marks" in an editorial. Parisi further stated: "When you consider the racial disparities built into our criminal justice system, the original implementation of this law smacks of Jim Crow laws which were put into place to deny African-Americans the right to vote."
African Americans make up 7 percent of the state's population, but account for 50 percent of the state's prison population. Click here to read a Los Angeles Times blog posting on the issue. Read a thread of comments published on the Daily Kenoshan online news forum.
Mississippi: Disenfranchisement Must Be Addressed Before Next Election
The Clarion-Ledger published an editorial addressing Mississippi's complicated disenfranchisement policies. Under current provisions, persons convicted of 21 specified offenses permanently lose the right to vote. But for other felonies, including drug offenses, voting rights are not forfeited, including for those in prison. Currently, fewer than 7,000 of the 25,000 people in the state's prisons are ineligible to vote. The editorial board believes that state policy is flawed in two directions, and urges that all felonies should result in the loss of voting rights while serving a sentence, but that voting rights should be restored for all upon sentence completion.
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