On May 17, five members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a bill to protect certain kinds of voting rights. The lead sponsor is John Lewis of Georgia. His bill, which doesn’t have a bill number yet, is co-sponsored by James Clyburn of South Carolina, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, Robert Brady of Pennsylvania, and John Conyers of Michigan. All are Democrats.
The bill can be seen here. It requires states to permit ex-felons to register to vote in federal elections, and it requires states to provide for election-day registration. It requires states to let individuals to file voter registration forms if they are at least sixteen years old, even though those individuals could not vote until they are 18. The bill requires states to take certain steps to make it easier to register to vote.
The bill is somewhat similar to HR 108, by John Conyers, which was introduced last year but which has not made any headway.
One more Donkey bill DOA – in the Elephant gerrymander H. Reps.
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P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.
Re felon voting: If you aren’t willing to follow the law yourself, then you can’t demand a role in making the law for everyone else, which is what you do when you vote. The right to vote can be restored to felons, but it should be done carefully, on a case-by-case basis after a person has shown that he or she has really turned over a new leaf, not automatically on the day someone walks out of prison. Read more about this issue on our website here [ http://www.ceousa.org/voting/voting-news/felon-voting/538-answering-the-challenges-to-felon-disenfranchisement ] and our congressional testimony here: [ http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/pdf/Clegg100316.pdf ]
#2, probably at least 95% of all U.s. adult residents have broken laws. And people who break laws, and are convicted of breaking laws, are still citizens. Constitutional protections do not vanish for people who have been convicted of breaking laws.
The United States is the only country in the world that ever disenfranchises people because they have broken laws. The whole idea did not exist in the United States until the Civil War era.
Perhaps the Civil War folks got a bit sensitive about armies of felons in the slave State regimes trying to overthrow the U.S.A. Const ???
The U.S.A. regime has ZERO power to define who are the Electors in the 50 sovereign Nation-States — regardless of ANY EVIL MORON SCOTUS opinion from Hell.
Art. I, Sec. 2 U.S.A. Reps and 17th Amdt U.S.A. Senators.
How soon before Civil WAR II about all sorts of stuff — NOT settled by 1776-1783 and 1861-1865 ??? — who are Electors, who pays NET taxes (per day, week, month, year, lifetime), etc., etc.
Completely agree with Richard at #3 above. If you aren’t in prison you have rights equal to anyone and any past condition of servitude shouldn’t be held against you.
A simple process for registering everyone to vote when they’re 18 is to require that registration at the same time in the same way as they require registration for potential military service. What they do then about voting is up to them but registration could be mandatory.
I suspect that Oregon’s Congressional delegation would be leading the opposition as this bill would force them to scrap their exclusive vote-by-mail system. I’d think the Secretary of State in Oregon wouldn’t appreciate being told how to run its Office
by Congress.
#5- I wonder just how high the percentage of 18-year old men (and not women) are currently registering for potential military service. Requiring ALL Americans to be inundated with political mailers every election would seem to further erode support for Congress and State governments. On the other hand that would sure help out the United States Postal Service stay around.