voting and rights
I've stayed pretty quiet around the subject of the upcoming US Presidential election. It's not because I don't care - I always care. I care about school board elections, about propositions in and out of my state, about state legislators.
But the way that I care, frankly, isn't very popular. And that doesn't keep me from talking about it, but it gets old to argue over and over again about the same shit on the internet.
That said: Please, if you are of voting age and legally allowed to vote in the US, vote. Please take a minute and think about who you chose, please research your options.
I know a lot of people are talking about knowing your rights when voting and that is awesome. We all need to know what we can expect, what we deserve in that voting booth.
But what about those people who aren't allowed in there anymore?
I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about voting rights and how they are abused and rescinded for felons (since that phone call, feministtravel.
Did you know that 46 US states and the District of Columbia deny the right to vote to all convicted adults in prison, regardless of their crime? 32 states disenfranchise felons on parole, 29 deny the right to vote to those on probation.
And, due to laws that might actually be unique in the WORLD, 14 states disallow voting even ex-offenders who have fully served their sentences and completed all requirements of their service (including paying all fees associated with their trials). They're just fucked, barred for life.
Sounds bad, right?
It gets worse.
5 million Americans are expected to be banned from voting because of a felony conviction in the 2008 elections.
According to the Human Rights Watch, more than 1.9 million of those will be black men. That 1.9 million represents more than 13% of the total population of adult black men and more than 1/3 of the total number of adults banned from voting.
According to the HRW, as of 1998, ten states disenfranchise more than one in five adult black men; in seven of these states, one in four black men is permanently disenfranchised.
Given current rates of incarceration, three in ten of the next generation of black men will be disenfranchised at some point in their lifetime. In states with the most restrictive voting laws, 40 percent of African American men are likely to be permanently disenfranchised.
Think about that when you vote or worse, when you chose not to.
But the way that I care, frankly, isn't very popular. And that doesn't keep me from talking about it, but it gets old to argue over and over again about the same shit on the internet.
That said: Please, if you are of voting age and legally allowed to vote in the US, vote. Please take a minute and think about who you chose, please research your options.
I know a lot of people are talking about knowing your rights when voting and that is awesome. We all need to know what we can expect, what we deserve in that voting booth.
But what about those people who aren't allowed in there anymore?
I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about voting rights and how they are abused and rescinded for felons (since that phone call, feministtravel.
Did you know that 46 US states and the District of Columbia deny the right to vote to all convicted adults in prison, regardless of their crime? 32 states disenfranchise felons on parole, 29 deny the right to vote to those on probation.
And, due to laws that might actually be unique in the WORLD, 14 states disallow voting even ex-offenders who have fully served their sentences and completed all requirements of their service (including paying all fees associated with their trials). They're just fucked, barred for life.
Sounds bad, right?
It gets worse.
5 million Americans are expected to be banned from voting because of a felony conviction in the 2008 elections.
According to the Human Rights Watch, more than 1.9 million of those will be black men. That 1.9 million represents more than 13% of the total population of adult black men and more than 1/3 of the total number of adults banned from voting.
According to the HRW, as of 1998, ten states disenfranchise more than one in five adult black men; in seven of these states, one in four black men is permanently disenfranchised.
Given current rates of incarceration, three in ten of the next generation of black men will be disenfranchised at some point in their lifetime. In states with the most restrictive voting laws, 40 percent of African American men are likely to be permanently disenfranchised.
Think about that when you vote or worse, when you chose not to.