Washington state lets ex-felons register to vote, if they have been released and if they have paid all fines and made all court-ordered restitution payments. On July 26, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that nothing in the state or federal constitutions provides any relief for ex-felons who have not paid their fines or restitutions because they can’t afford to do so.
The case is Madison v State, no. 78598-8. The plaintiffs had argued that the effect of the law (requiring that fines and restitutions be paid before an ex-felon may register) amounts to a poll tax. The U.S. Supreme Court had struck down poll taxes in 1966. The Washington State Supreme Court rejected this analogy, saying that since ex-felons have no constitutional right to register to vote anyway, they cannot complain. The Washington State Constitution says “Elections Shall be Free and Equal” but the Court said that is irrelevant. Most state constitutions say “Elections shall be free and equal”, but state courts rarely seem to think that phrase means anything.
If we are supposed to feel sorry about felons having their voting rights denied, how about the loss of their right to bear arms?
Considering that 50% of people in the US go to prison for nonviolent offenses, why should they give up that right either? The only difference between them and 80% of the population is that they got caught.
A century ago the regulation of political action was undertaken in the guise of voter’s rights. Google: Voter’s Rights and Party Wrongs. Today the courts (the Federalists Society?) are actively pursuing suppression of voter’s rights. Not so ironic at all. Regulations usually begin with justification by concrete instances and evolves into oppression justified by arbitrary abstractions.
THis doesn’t trouble me in the least. As the “victim” of no less than three “non-violent” crimes (I have had my door torn off the hinges in an apartment robbery, I have had my vehicle stolen, and I have been plowed into a concrete barrier at 60 mph by a drunk driver who was traveling the wrong way on the freeway), I fail to see why convicted felons should be allowed to vote.
If they lack the sense to behave like civilized people, and instead choose to prey on humanity, then why on earth should they be allowed to further make decisions that affect the rest of humanity? They have already proven that they lack the capacity to make good decisions, haven’t they? I fail to see why they should be given the opportunity to make decisions that will actually affect large groups of people.
Honestly, use some common sense!