Pros And Cons Of Voting Registration Drives

Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, examines mass incarceration in the United States, why the criminal justice system works the way it does towards minorities, the detriments associated with mass incarceration as it relates to offenders, and much more. In the introduction of her book, Alexander immediately paints the harsh reality of mass incarceration with the story of Jarvious Cotton who is denied the right to vote among other rights because he, “has been labeled as a felon and is currently on parole” (1). Other information Alexander presents in her introduction are her qualifications as an author of the book, and gives a brief summary of each chapter and how each one is laid out. Her qualifications are she is African-American civil rights attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and is also an Associate Professor at the University of Stanford Law School. From a critical standpoint, Alexander seems very qualified to write on the topic, being part of the marginalized group and also being an expert in the legal field of which the topic covers, enhances her ethos to where one could consider her an expert in mass incarceration topics, as they relate to African-Americans. Overall, the introduction of her book does a great job starting out giving a stark reality of topic at hand, giving brief statistical references about mass incarceration in the United States, and giving an outline for her book.

Since the beginning of the United States government, Americans have had the right to vote. This right is entitled to most citizens of America, but it is not entitled to citizens that have been convicted of felonies. This is called disenfranchisement; where an ex-felon cannot vote, own a weapon or go into the army. Specifically, voter disenfranchisement; only two states in the US are not subject to this law. In the past 40 years due to disenfranchisement the United States criminal justice system has withheld the voting rights of 6.1 million Americans due to their convictions. Maine and Vermont do not hold restrictions due to past felonies. With over 3.1 million civilians out of prisons or other facilities this hurts the overall point of democracy, making it unconstitutional to withhold these rights that are stated in the amendments for the knowledge of American citizens.

In recent years, society has noticed increasingly minute numbers of voters. Regardless of what is causing people to stay home, it is a big issue. Voting is a right, every citizen is entitled to having a voice in the government. We can choose to vote or we can choose to abstain. This is not an issue, until voting numbers are so low it is hard to even call elections. To help fix this, countries have implemented a system called "Compulsory Voting", or more blatantly put as "Mandatory Voting". This system would require all citizens (capable) to vote. On paper, this seems like a good idea. However, it is a removal of right. To have a right is to have an option. We as citizens have the right to almost anything we want. The Constitution gives us options. You wouldn't say we have the right to pay taxes. We are required to pay taxes. Obligations are not considered rights. Making the right to vote mandatory would be removing one keyword. RIGHT.

Soon after passage of the Voting Rights Act, federal examiners were conducting voter registration, and black voter registration began a sharp increase. The cumulative effect of the Supreme Court’s decisions, Congress’ enactment of voting rights legislation, and the ongoing efforts of concerned private citizens and the Department of Justice, has been to restore the right to vote guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. The Voting Rights Act itself has been called the single most effective piece of civil rights legislation ever passed by

Voting has not always been as easy as it is today. It is interesting to examine how far America has progressed in its process of allowing different types of people to be able to vote. Voting was once aimed at a particular group of people, which were white males that owned their own property. Today, most people over the age of eighteen can vote, except for the mentally incompetent or people who have been convicted of major felonies in some states. The decline of voter participation has always been a debate in the public arena. According to McDonald and Popkin, it is “the most important, most familiar, most analyzed, and most conjectured trend in recent American political history (2001, 963)” The question is, how important is voter

“I gave a little blood on that bridge in Selma, Alabama for the right to vote. I’m not going to stand by and let the Supreme Court take the right to vote away from us [African Americans]” –John Lewis. Within 100 years, African Americans overcame many obstacles such as paying poll taxes, passing multiple tests, and violence to be able to vote. They had to pay taxes, such as poll taxes. They also had to pass multiple tests, such as the Property and Literacy tests. Violence was also an obstacle African Americans had to face in order to vote.

When the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (also known as, the Motor Voter Act) was passed, I believe it may have had a postive effect by facilitating the registration process. However, people have become significantly lazy in the past few years. Even though this act made it very easy for peoplet to register to vote, I believe many feel as though their personal vote is insignificant or maybe they just really don't have an opinion in politics. But in reality, their vote would definitly make a difference. I feel as though it is a privellage we as a people get to vote for our leaders of the country and many may have forgotten that with all of the political wars and arguing going on around us today. When I am able and the next election comes

One example of registration laws that effect voter participation includes the House Bill 1355. In 2011 Florida voted on House Bill 1355 placing new regulations on community organization that have helped eligible voters to register (Herron, Smith 2013). Seeing as Florida is a swing state and every four years during presidential elections the state and its residents can determine who will be the next president of the United States, it’s important for communities and organizations to mobilize the people to go out and vote. Although a federal judge in 2012 later blocked the legislation that was making it difficult for third party registration organizations the damage was already done. For a prominent voting organization opted out of doing registration drives when the House Bill 1355 was initially passed (Herron, Smith). The implementation of the Bill influenced the upcoming presidential election in 2012 by slowing the voter registration of thousands of Floridians. Bills like the 2011 House Bill 1355 only raises the cost in the rational choice model making it only more probable that people will just opt out of voting because they don’t want to deal with the time-consuming process. When registering to vote one must adhere to the states laws and comply with the process of registration. Because each state has their own legislation and laws that their residents must follow, it crucial for people to get some information on the state registration process in order to vote.

It is an assumption that race is a main factor in felony disenfranchisement because it prevents political involvement from African Americans and other minority races who are convicted of crimes that offenses are underlined in Felony Disenfranchisement laws that Haygood suggest are “offenses considered to be committed by the majority of blacks.” It could be supported that “more than one-third of the total disenfranchised population are black men” (Fellner). Due to these numbers the minority is disproportionally represented because of the astronomical amount of people in one race who are prohibited from voting due to their criminal activity.

This article focused its searchlight on felon disenfranchisement by gluing it eco-social theory in order to elucidate how approximately 13% of African American men are denied voting right by virtue of a felony conviction. It delve into how felon disenfranchisement laws contribute to racial health disparities in the United States. Purtle, Jonathan (2013) identified two potential pathways that facilitates the viability of the felon disenfranchisement laws that stand more disadvantageous to African Americans; these pathways include: (a) inability to change inequitable public policies that differentially allocated resources for health, and (b) inability to reintegrate into society by voting which add heavily to allostatic load. Purtle, Jonathan (2013) built on universal human rights that are codified by international and regional human rights agreements which United States also ratified and adopted; the Universal human rights are widely built on political participation and equal treatment, so felon disenfranchisement laws enacted in 48 States contradicts United States ratification to universal human rights and equal suffrage (Uggen, C. Manza, J. 2006). Subsequently, the author maintain that disproportionate effects of felon disenfranchisement laws on African American violates guarantee to nondiscrimination as a human

Are you scared of the black man in the elevator with you? Are you scared that in the back of your favorite Mexican restaurant there is a drug cartel? Minorities are born criminals in the eyes of many Americans; ”Nixon has always been a thief” (Leavelle). That quote shows how people think because a minority does one bad thing that makes them and their whole race terrible beings. It also shows how people think because Nixon is black he was born and raised as a criminal. This mindset of society is why minorities are being put in jail. Minorities are being jailed because of stereotypes and fear. Fear of life,and fear of power. With this fear of lose of power society in America has been set up so that minorities have less say in the government. Jim Wallis talks about how through mass incarceration white supremacy can be preserved, in his logic the more minorities that are mass incarcerated the less they can vote. Not only the ones that are incarcerated but also the ones that have gotten out of jail, because felons cannot vote. Mass incarceration of minorities is meant to stop their progression. In this case felons, which happen to be a large portion minorities, do not have any say on what goes on in America. Martin Luther King Jr. said it best in Letter from Birmingham Jail, “ Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application”. The law that states that felons cannot vote sounds like a good idea

Although some states believe that voting is a privilege that can be taken away after intolerable behavior, ex-criminals should be given voting rights because they are heavily impacted by government decisions, the vote is consequently taken away from low income, minority factions, and the US has a historical record of disenfranchising people regarding their race, color, previous servitude, and sex, so we have reason to question the disenfranchisement of other minorities.

The U.S Constitution gives the states considerable latitude in the way of conducting elections. The American citizens have many opportunities to vote. However, a turnout in American elections has dramatically decreased over the past several decades. In order to address this issue, majority of states have allowed absentee voting reforms. These convenient reforms are thought to increase the voter turnout in the elections, as well as to reduce administrative costs.

More studied than the effect of felon disenfranchisement on individuals is the effect on the wider community. These laws diminish the voice of the Black community in multiple ways. First, they generally dilute the power of the Black vote, particularly because the disenfranchised population of a city tends to be concentrated in relatively few neighborhoods. For example, a 1992 study “showed that 72% of all of New York State's prisoners came from only 7 of New York City's 55 community board districts,” and a 2003 study showed that “53% of Illinois prisoners released in 2001 returned to Chicago, and 34% of those releases were concentrated in 6 of 77 Chicago communities.” This is problematic because, as law professor Debra Parkes summarizes: “When the views of one group are systematically cut out of the political process, the public debate will be skewed.” When the disenfranchised are concentrated in few neighborhoods, the political power of those neighborhoods is reduced.

A compulsory voting system within the United States threatens America’s founding ideals and ultimately causes more negatives than positives. Preventing the United States from creating a compulsory voting system eliminates the demand for an unnecessary disciplinary system, guarantees the reliability of the majority vote, and ensures that America continues to live up to its promise of Liberty. Consequently, creating a new law comes with the responsibility for the government to construct a new disciplinary system to protect the law and to make certain the law is obliged by. In this case, someone that fails to vote would be unreasonably disciplined.