Restoring voting rights for felons is an issue that typically comes up once every few years around election time. This time, the issue came up in a number of town halls for the now 20 declared Democratic candidates. The issue sparked headlines this past week when Bernie Sanders was asked about this issue during a town hall he appeared on for CNN. The question, asked by a Harvard student, specifically targeted groups of people like terrorists, murderers, and people who have committed sexual assault, which would include the Boston Marathon bomber. Sanders responded by saying, “Yes, even for terrible people, because once you start chipping away and you say, ‘Well, that guy committed a terrible crime, not going to let him vote. Well, that person did that. Not going to let that person vote,’ you’re running down a slippery slope.”
In my opinion, and I think most other sane Americans would agree, those convicted of a violent crime, such as those listed in the question by the Harvard student, should not have the right to vote restored. So let’s look at this issue through two perspectives: political and moral.
From a political point of view, while many think that providing voting rights to felons wouldn’t change much, if anything, when it comes to elections, they should think again. Back in 2014, one survey showed that 7 out of 10 felons register as Democrats. While numbers like this would be inconsequential in states like New York and California, they could cause many red states to turn purple, and purple states to turn blue.
On a national scale, this would likely have been enough to make the most purple state in the country, Florida, swing to the Democratic side multiple times. In the most recent state election in 2018, both the new Republican governor and senator would have likely lost the election if felons in the state of Florida were able to vote. Specifically, in the governor race, the Democrat lost by less than 40,000 votes. This means that if the 7 out of 10 statistic holds true in Florida, where there are an estimated 100,000 prisoners, this would be enough to turn the election. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the 2020 elections because felons had their voting rights restored in Florida by a state constitutional amendment in 2018.
Additionally, this could have major impacts on local elections as well. From a Republican perspective, this is really bad news. So at this point, unless Republicans can find a way to convince the majority of the prison population to vote Republican, they should do their best to limit the advances of the Democratic party to restore felon voting rights.
On the moral side, the issue becomes fuzzier, especially since morals are different from person to person. From my perspective, as I have previously stated, it is reprehensible that anyone who would seek to harm another person should have any moral standing in society. America is supposed to be the land of second chances, but are we truly willing to give people who intentionally committed violent crimes a second chance? While I do recognize that people can change and truly be remorseful for their actions, I find it hard to believe that this is the case for all or even most convicted violent felons.
For non-violent felons, I think we need to take a careful look at their records. For example, while selling drugs is considered a non-violent crime, did people die as a result of consuming the drugs that were sold? Hard drug dealers ruin thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people’s lives every single year. In this particular case, my earlier opinion holds true. However, in the case of drug dealers like those who sell cannabis, they likely did not cause harm to anyone’s life. While they did break the law and need to pay back their debt to society while in prison, I think they might be one of many non-violent groups worthy of having their voting rights restored.
So where do I personally land on all of this after looking at it from both sides? I think it would be best to follow the brief moral argument that I have laid out and for Republicans to do their best to convince felons that they should stop supporting the Democratic party. While I don’t want to see the far-left party that the Democrats have turned into take power in this nation, I still believe we have a moral obligation to be virtuous in all of our actions and ultimately do the right thing regardless of the political consequences.
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