Pros Of Polling

One of the more controversial debates in today’s political arena, especially around election times, is that of felon disenfranchisement. The disenfranchisement of felons, or the practice of denying felons and ex-felons the right to vote, has been in practice before the colonization of America and traces back to early England; however, it has not become so controversial and publicized until recent times. “In today’s political system, felons and ex-felons are the only competent adults that are denied the right to vote; the total of those banned to vote is approximately 4.7 million men and women, over two percent of the nation’s population” (Reiman 3).

Moreover, not allowing felons to vote is a violation of the US Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the United States. Section Two of the Voting Act contains a general prohibition on voting discrimination. Furthermore, Congress amended this section to prohibit any voting practice or procedure that has a discriminatory result or prohibits a group of people from voting. New York is one state that restricts felony voting. In the New York Election Law 5-106, it clearly disqualifies a group of people, incarcerated felons and felons on parole, from voting in elections. This is a blatant violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

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

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.

Undoubtedly, the last 80 years have brought the biggest change to the election process - polling. Beginning with the Gallup poll in 1936, the industry has become a titanic business, growing unregulated by the United States government. Frequently, polls have come under fire for their inaccuracy, or for their role in blocking the Democratic process (the 2000 and 2004 elections come to mind). Nonetheless, the 1992 election was not notable because of alleged bias, but because of what the polls said about

The author proves that racism thrives by highlighting the African Americans ' reality as it is today. Virtually in many states, convicted felons cannot vote resulting in an extraordinary amount of African Americans barred from voting. A large number of blacks have served time in prison as a result of

Rhetorical Analysis: The primary audience for this paper includes every citizen aged eighteen and above eligible to vote in the United States. The proposed topic mostly concerns these individuals due to the fact, they are affected by presidential voting institutions. Throughout this paper, I will be arguing in favor of the Electoral College, with an end goal of persuading my audience of the benefits of the system.

In 12 different states, former ex-felons even after serving their term have a large chance on losing their voting rights for good; don’t you think that is too harsh? 19 states give the ex-felons a chance to redeem their rights after their term of incarceration, parole, and probation, while another 19 states give their rights back after their term is up. In this case you can conclude that no matter how large or small the charge, the ex-felon was convicted of that their rights for voting should not simply be given back to them after their term, although the ex-felons should have the right to earn back their legal, vote it should not be that easy. The NAACP is talking to the U.N. to make sure all former convicted felons in the United

America should abolish the electoral college voting system because it is an outdated and undemocratic system. This claim addresses an issue of policy because it calls for necessary action by the Supreme Court to abolish America’s current voting system. The claim urges America to take action and reevaluate if the electoral college is a voting system that should continue to be in use. An issue of substantiation is slightly underlying within this claim as well; if American citizens constantly feel as if their vote doesn’t matter, nor make a difference due to the way the electoral college works, a voter depression turnout may continue to increase, and an apathetic attitude will continue to emerge towards the elections.

In an article, “Convictions and doubts: Retribution, Representation, and Debate over Felon Disenfranchisement” by Pamela Karlan, a professor at Stanford School of Law, it states that “Florida disenfranchises… approximately 827,000. Slightly over 600,000 of those individuals are people who have completed their sentences… ex-offenders who had completed their sentences been permitted to vote, Al Gore would have carried Florida by more than 31,000 votes” (Karlan, P., n.d, pg. 11-13). The election race was between George W. Bush and Al Gore and Florida is the state that gave Bush more than enough electoral votes to win the election. America would have had a different leader if the ex-felons could restore their right to vote, and which also means that America would have been different now. This supports the claim that ex-felons’ political affiliation will change America’s future because of the impact it will have politically because it shows the effect of what could have happened, hypothetically, in the election. Seeing that felons’ votes will take America’s future in a different turn by having a little less than half of the 1.4 million disenfranchised felons that finished their sentences shows how important the felons’ votes are. The felons’ unique insight regarding politics because of their experiences, felons will be able to guide politicians to make better laws that will make laws like felon disenfranchisement

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe recently gave an order that would restore voting rights to hundreds of thousands of felons prior to the upcoming general election, but the Supreme Court of Virginia is currently reviewing a case that could ruin McAuliffe’s order. A Republican attorney for the state argued that the order was an unconstitutional overreach, while the opposing side said that the order was a daring, but perfectly legal use of his power. Nearly a quarter of Virginia’s African American population is not allowed to vote due to convictions and Virginia is only one of eleven states that requires individual exemption to vote after felons completed their sentence. Over eleven thousand ex-convicts have registered to vote since McAuliffe

The 2004 presidential election between George W. Bush and John Kerry was the beginning of a movement. During this time, the headlines were full of coverage about the right to allow felons vote in elections. Although the law is still the same, there is still potential to overturn it. In a 2005 article posted by City Journal, Edward Feser said that “some advocates of felon voting have trouble with the basic concept of criminal justice”. However, there are many points to be made about why felons should be allowed to vote in elections after they have been released for their crime. For instance, in the eighth amendment, it ‘succinctly prohibits ‘excessive’ sanctions,’ and notes that punishment for a crime should be proportioned to the offense. In this case, they are specifically excluding all felons permanently and making them outliers.

In addition, like in Malcom’s and Dr. King’s day clear attempts have been made to suppress black votes in several southern states. South Carolina, for example, ahead of the recent election passed some laws including, outlawing same day voter registration and the usual full week of voting. The state also reduced voting hours and limit the number of polling stations in predominantly black communities. South Carolina went as far as to redraw political boundaries which was later overturned by the courts. Similarly, in Florida, anyone with a previous felony were disenfranchised. Remember now, African-Americans and Latinos form the most incarcerated group in the country. It is abundantly clear lawmakers had carefully studied the voting patterns of African-Americans and Latinos and outlawed the practices that favored them. Come to think of it, a certain presidential candidate was known for saying that the election was ‘rigged.’ I am inclined to think the then candidate knew a little more than we did.

At a City Hall meeting in Cleveland, Ohio when asked about the topic of mandatory voting laws (Jackson 2015), President Obama stated, “If everybody voted, then it would completely change the political map in this country.” (Stephanopoulos 2015 p5) (Evidence: Testimony) He is right, if everyone voted the political map in the country would be completely different---and not for the better. Compulsory voting can potentially cause the nation 's true political viewpoints to be misrepresented, thus hindering political progression, by making voters feel obligated to choose candidates that may not represent their ideas and forcing the politically disengaged to select random ballots.

The topic I chose to write about is whether the U.S election process is fair or not. This topic came to mind while watching the recent presidential elections. Now whether I was for or against the winner is irrelevant. The real question is, “Does our vote really matter?” When the popular vote leans towards candidate A, but the electoral votes lean towards candidate B is it fair the a few hundred votes count more than millions of Americans? In the 18th century our founding fathers created the system of electoral votes believing that the average farmer was not educated enough in politics to make a knowledgeable decision. Even though this may have been true, and it would be a hassle to change the system that has been working, many Americans feel that their vote makes no difference. Our government is run by politicians, politicians who Americans elect and then vote for our president, so whether the presidential election process is fair or not is debatable.