The Ex-Felon Vote
10 Mar 2011 09:34 am
Adam Serwer looks at voter disenfrancisement. He notes that Florida's GOP is "prepared to roll back former Gov. Charlie Crist's efforts to re-enfranchise ex-felons." A dispoportionate number of former prisoners are African-American, a demographic group that votes strongly for Democrats:
The obvious historical irony is that Reconstruction-era felony disenfranchisement laws were once passed by Democrats to disenfranchise blacks because they voted Republican. Now, Republicans support such laws because they make it more difficult for Democratic-leaning constituencies to cast ballots. To say that such laws are motivated by partisanship rather than racism doesn't really redeem them all that much.
A mixture of law, politics, autobiography and humour. Once described as "The Devilish Advocate" (Guardian), I do have the ability to provoke a response. Sometimes it comes from someone who uses a thought process, and sometimes from jerks usually associated with the knee.
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