ON NOVEMBER 7, MILLIONS WON'T BE ALLOWED TO VOTE!

Suffrage, the bedrock of the Constitution, is being eroded in the name of
the War on Drugs.

- -- There are nearly four million persons currently or permanently
disenfranchised as a result of laws that take away the voting rights of
felons and ex-felons.

- -- No other democracy besides the U.S. disenfranchises convicted offenders
for life. Many democratic nations, including Denmark, France, Israel, and
Poland, permit prisoners to vote as well.

- -- Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of the disenfranchised are not in
prison but are on probation, on parole or have completed their sentences.

- -- 1.4 million African American men -- 13 percent of the adult African
American male population -- have lost the right to vote, a rate of
disenfranchisement that is seven times the national average. By comparison,
in the 1996 general election 4.6 million African American men voted.

- -- In Florida one in three African American men has permanently lost the
right to vote.

- -- In five states Iowa, Mississippi, New Mexico, Virginia, and Wyoming one
in four black men (24% to 28%) have permanently lost the right to vote.

Can we expect people to be responsible citizens if they are treated as
second class citizens?

Common Sense for Drug Policy, Kevin B. Zeese, President 703-354-9050,
703-354-5695 (fax), info@csdp.org, www.csdp.org

Sources - Fellner, Jamie and Mauer, Marc, "Losing the Vote: The Impact of
Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States (Washington, DC: Human
Rights Watch & The Sentencing Project, 1998). Mauer, Marc and Allard,
Patricia, "Regaining the Vote: An Assessment of Activity Relating to Felon
Disenfranchisement Laws" (Washington, DC: Sentencing Project, January
2000), from the web at http://www.sentencingproject.org/news/regainvote.htm