3 ms·
This really shocked me when I found out about it a few years ago. According to this statistic [1], 2.5 % of the electorate is disenfranchised. 2.5% is a HUGE
by the_duke 10y ago
This really shocked me when I found out about it a few years ago.
According to this statistic [1], 2.5 % of the electorate is disenfranchised.
2.5% is a HUGE amount for a 2 party system with elections often being very tight.
This is somewhat less severe due to fellons probably belonging to demographics less inclined to vote, but it's still a large number.
[1] http://felonvoting.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000287 http://felonvoting.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=0...
- meritt 10y agoLess inclined? Felons are disproportionately black and black people overwhelmingly vote democrat. There's a reason the red-states are the ones with the strictest felon-voting regulations: They don't want non-whites voting. Take a look at the North Carolina Voter ID law that was just overturned if you need additional everyday evidence: http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/29/politics/north-carolina-voter-id/ http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/29/politics/north-carolina-voter-...
- VLM 10y agoFelons tend young, poor, and uneducated and adding those together they tend not to vote at all, although you're correct, if they live long enough, get a job, or graduate from school, THEN they'd be in demographic groups that do tend to vote D. Both of you are more or less correct. OP is correct that they don't vote, you are correct that if they were in a higher social class that did vote they'd tend to vote D. Most of the R party complaining about D party enfranchisement of felons is just BAU "must oppose anything my opponent does automatically" not an actual existential threat to the R party.