re: #105 Blind Frog Belly White

Change that to ‘currently convicted of a felony, serving a sentence’ then.

My argument would be that a convicted felon serving time, one way or another, has forfeited their right to vote, as they’ve forfeited their right to their liberty, WHILE SERVING THEIR SENTENCE.

Once that’s done, and ‘debt to society’ discharged, I can’t see a reasonable argument for denying them the franchise. You’ve paid your debt to society, or you haven’t.

Well, my basic argument there was (aside from a discharged debt to society which we agree on) is what constitutes “forfeiting liberty.” Obviously being in prison means you cannot come and go as you will, but one of the founding slogans of the nation is “no taxation without representation.” An imprisoned felon is still subject to taxation for example.

Also, a felony conviction doesn’t necessarily include jail time - you could get probation for it.

This is one of those thorny issues you probably couldn’t get a whole lot of people to agree on. To me it seems simpler just to have an inalienable right to vote and be done with it. No parsing about “this convicted person is worthy, but that one is not.”