{"id":176272,"date":"2010-01-13T18:35:09","date_gmt":"2010-01-13T23:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2010786347_felonsgetthevote.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-01-13T18:35:09","modified_gmt":"2010-01-13T23:35:09","slug":"felons-get-the-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/176272","title":{"rendered":"Felons get the vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

A slap in the face<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Seattle Times editorial published on Monday [\u201cAppeal felon-vote ruling.\u201d Opinion, Jan. 11] addressed the Washington state \u201cfelon disenfranchisement law,\u201d which denies voting rights for persons who have been convicted of felonies and incarcerated. The editorial notes that \u201cWashington has stripped felons of their right to vote as a punishment on top of time behind bars.\u201d<\/p>\n

I doubt that as a \u201cpunishment,\u201d this law has any impact on felons. Nor would it have any impact as a crime deterrent. But what it does do \u2014 as the editorial points out \u2014 is compound a person\u2019s \u201cseparation from civil society.\u201d It is, as you suggest, an additional slap in the face for the felon.<\/p>\n

Is this what we want, to further humiliate persons who have been convicted of crimes? We know that crime is in part the result of disadvantaged opportunity, discrimination and victimization, particularly when applied to youth and children. To pretend that this is not the case is to be blind to the realities of contemporary society.<\/p>\n

Our goal in working with those in the criminal-justice system should be more appropriately directed toward rehabilitation. Providing access to education, employment and appropriate housing would serve as examples of activities that could assist this group to reintegrate into \u201ccivil society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Disenfranchisement, further stigmatization and alienation of this population will only impede rehabilitation and, as an additional outcome, put others in the community at greater risk of crime.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Jere G. LaFollette, Mount Vernon<\/em><\/p>\n

Exposes discrimination<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has decided that felons should have the right to vote, because denying them that right disenfranchises minority voters disproportionately. It is long overdue that the issue of discrimination in incarceration is exposed.<\/p>\n

While females comprise over 50 percent of the population, they make up less than 10 percent of the inmate population. Arrest rates of people younger than 30 make up a vastly higher proportion than their percentage of population. And if one studied the education level of inmates, one would see that people with college degrees are vastly underrepresented as compared to their population at large.<\/p>\n

By using plain, provable statistics, it is obvious that the police are deliberately not arresting retired, white, college-educated females to the degree that they should be.<\/p>\n

This reverse discrimination must stop.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Tom Tangen, Edmonds<\/em><\/p>\n

Uncomfortable with the notion<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s nice to know that here in the state of Washington, logic and common sense have been buried under a steaming pile of political correctness.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t say that I\u2019m comfortable with the notion that I now have the same voting rights as gangbangers and level-three sex offenders. These people are felons for a reason.<\/p>\n

Correct me if I\u2019m wrong, but isn\u2019t it a lawyer\u2019s job to uphold the law, not destroy it? It\u2019s quite apparent that none of those [9th Circuit Court] judges have ever been robbed at gunpoint.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Jeremy Ghea, Federal Way<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A slap in the face A Seattle Times editorial published on Monday [\u201cAppeal felon-vote ruling.\u201d Opinion, Jan. 11] addressed the Washington state \u201cfelon disenfranchisement law,\u201d which denies voting rights for persons who have been convicted of felonies and incarcerated. The editorial notes that \u201cWashington has stripped felons of their right to vote as a punishment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2861,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176272\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}