RILEY SHOULD SIGN VOTING RIGHTS BILL

Before Gov. Bob Riley decides if he will sign legislation that would cut
some of the red tape involved with some former convicted felons having
their voting rights restored, he needs to cut through the rhetoric and look
at the real effects of the bill.

Among the things he is likely to find:

* Despite the claims of proponents and opponents of this legislation, there
would be nothing "automatic" about the restoration of voting rights.

Convicted felons who have served their time and paid their debts to society
would still have to apply to have their voting rights restored, much as
they do now.

* This bill is not so much about making it easier on the former convicts to
get their voting rights back, but on making it easier -- much, much easier
- -- for the overworked staff of the Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Under current law, felons who have served their time can apply to the
Parole Board to have their rights -- including voting rights -- restored.

But the Parole Board staff has to prepare a lengthy report on the request,
the same kind of report it does for every potential parolee, and the board
has to hold a hearing.

But despite the rhetoric of opponents of the change, this extra work
doesn't fall on the petitioner, but on the Parole Board, but on the state.

The result of this bureaucratic nightmare is a current backlog of 1,970
requests and a waiting period that could mean those who applied recently
might have to wait three years for their rights to be restored, according
to Cynthia Dillard, the assistant director of the agency.

Meanwhile, parole and probation officers are doing these reports instead of
monitoring the average 220 parolees each officer is assigned.

The bill now being considered by Riley would streamline the process. But it
does not make it "automatic," and it does contain several protections to
prevent abuse.

Convicted felons would request that they be considered to have their voting
rights restored. The Parole Board staff would still verify that the
petitioner has fulfilled all the terms of his or her sentence, including
paying full restitution.

But parole officers would not have to do the full-scale investigation of
each petitioner, nor would the Parole Board have to hold a hearing.

Excluded from the streamlined restoration of voting rights would be people
convicted of murder, rape, sodomy, sexual abuse, incest, sexual torture,
enticing a child into a vehicle for immoral purposes, soliciting a child by
computer, production or possession of obscene material, and treason.

Several more categories of criminals are excluded from the streamlined
process than from the current process.

Would a greater percentage of felons get their rights restored? Not by
much, if any.

Currently, according to Dillard, about 90 percent of those who apply to get
their voting rights restored under the cumbersome existing process
eventually are successful.

Many of the 10 percent who are rejected are turned down because they still
have some terms of their sentences outstanding or they still owe
restitution. And those fitting that description would still be blocked for
those same reasons under the new process.

And remember, even more would be blocked from the new process because the
list of exceptions has been expanded under the bill now before Riley.

There really are no good reasons not to sign this legislation, and there
are several good reasons why it should be signed.

It would:

* Create an additional incentive for convicted felons to pay full
restitution and to comply with all terms of their sentences. * Help restore
a sense of pride in former criminals, hopefully making them better citizens
who would be less likely to return to crime.

* Take a tremendous paperwork burden off the staff of the Parole Board.

That last reason is the best one. Instead of spending time concentrating on
former criminals who have done their time and paid their debts to society,
parole officers could focus on monitoring those still under the criminal
justice system.

Considering their current workload, that clearly is not being done
adequately now.