LinkLinksOpinion Robert White in The Post: Why we want to restore the vote to everyone in the District By Editor On Oct 3, 2019 Last updated Oct 3, 2019 34 Share Voting is the most fundamental right of our democracy. Yet more than 5 million American citizens are not allowed to vote in our elections because they have felony convictions. Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia carved these citizens out of our democracy when they passed laws stripping them of their right to vote. Disenfranchisement laws, passed mostly during the Jim Crow era, draw an undemocratic connection between an appropriate punishment for a crime and the most basic right of democracy. When residents are convicted of a felony, they do not lose their citizenship or most of their rights as citizens, including the right to counsel and freedom of speech. Why, then, have we taken away their right to vote? 34 Share FacebookTwitterReddItWhatsAppEmailPrint
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