RIGHT TO VOTE

Federal Law Needed to Protect Ex-Felon Voting Rights

More than 5 million people convicted of felonies will be barred from
voting in the upcoming presidential election. This is a mind-boggling
number of people who will be disenfranchised. The most alarming
aspect is that many of them are eligible to vote but don't know it.

In New York state, if you are convicted of a felony, you
automatically lose your right to vote. According to the New York
State Division of Parole, your right to vote is restored once you
have completed either parole or your maximum sentence. If you are on
probation, your right to vote is never taken away. But most ex-felons
do not know this.

When I was released from prison after serving 12 years under the
Rockefeller drug laws, I had no clue about my eligibility to cast a
vote. When I went to register to vote I was shocked when they
informed me that I had to wait until I was first released from
parole. I felt the pain of felony disenfranchisement since it seemed
I was being further punished for my crime.

I saw my Queens neighborhood deteriorating around me but was
powerless to do anything about it by casting my vote. I was elated
when, after waiting for five years, I got off parole and was able to
cast my first vote since being released from prison. I felt then like
I was fully welcomed back by society as a citizen.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), in New York
state more than 100,000 people are convicted of felonies every year.
A record 115,573 people were convicted of felony offenses in 2007.
Nearly 62,300 of those who are convicted are currently on probation
for felonies. This amounts to hundreds of thousands of individuals
who probably think they cannot vote forever.

There is a growing concern among the public and policymakers for
these people to discover their eligibility to cast a ballot. New York
State Assemblyman Nick Perry of the 58th District of Kings County is
one of those concerned. He currently is sponsoring legislative bill
A4107, which would require the Division of Criminal Justice Services
to notify former inmates that their right to vote has been restored
within 30 days prior to their release.

In addition, it would require voter registration forms to be provided
to these individuals. The bill will help former inmates reintegrate
more fully into society by empowering them with the right to vote.

You may wonder why prisoners are not notified of this right. I think
the problem lies in the voting system itself. In a report by the
Brennan Center and the ACLU, based on hundreds of interviews with New
York election officials, they found that one third of them did not
know that individuals on probation could vote.

The report urged states to better train election officials and to
eliminate complicated registration procedures and paperwork to make
sure criminal defendants are fully informed about their voting rights.

Even at the federal level, legislation was introduced last week that
would restore the right to vote in federal elections to individuals
who were previously convicted of a crime, completed their prison
terms and are living in the community. The Democracy Restoration Act
of 2008 (DRA, S. 6340, H.R. 7136) was introduced in both chambers of
Congress by Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., and Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich.

Exercising the right to vote should be an important part of a
prisoner's rehabilitation. It's an act that makes one feel whole
again following years of losing those rights as part of a punishment
for crimes committed. If, through voting, individuals can become
involved in the political process, they have a much better chance of
fully integrating back into society.

Anthony Papa is the author of "15 To Life" and communications
specialist for the Drug Policy Alliance in New York.