Felons and Voting

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/opinion/felons-and-voting.html

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To the Editor:

Re “A Meaningful Move on Voting Rights” (editorial, May 31):

I have no quarrel with Alabama’s decision to define better which crimes should lead to disenfranchisement, and I agree with your editorial than some parts of its line-drawing make more sense than others, but it is wrong to say all felon disenfranchisement laws are “racist, pointless, anti-democratic shams.”

If a particular law is shown to be racist, the Supreme Court ruled long ago that it will be struck down, as your editorial acknowledges. But that evidence doesn’t exist for laws now on the books, which is why their opponents no longer bother to litigate.

Nor are the laws pointless: If you aren’t willing to follow the law yourself, then you can’t demand a role in making the law for everyone else, which is what you do when you vote.

And they aren’t anti-democratic. We don’t let everyone vote: not children, not noncitizens and not people who have committed serious crimes against their fellow citizens. Self-governance requires some level of responsibility and commitment to our laws.

The right to vote can be restored to felons, but it should be done carefully, on a case-by-case basis after a person has shown that he or she has really turned over a new leaf, not automatically on the day someone walks out of prison. After all, the unfortunate truth is that the majority of people who walk out of prison will be walking back in.

ROGER CLEGG, FALLS CHURCH, VA.

The writer is president and general counsel, Center for Equal Opportunity.