Loftin: Help ex-felons get their vote back

In this Oct. 22, 2018 photo, Yvette Demerit puts on Amendment 4 button at the Ben & Jerry's "Yes on 4" Truck where people learned about the amendment and ate free ice cream at Charles Hadley Park in Miami. Amendment 4 asks voters to restore the voting rights of people with past felony convictions. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
In this Oct. 22, 2018 photo, Yvette Demerit puts on Amendment 4 button at the Ben & Jerry's "Yes on 4" Truck where people learned about the amendment and ate free ice cream at Charles Hadley Park in Miami. Amendment 4 asks voters to restore the voting rights of people with past felony convictions. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

"I believe in love and charity and goodness and kindness, and I believe that when a man is down - KICK HIM! That way, if he survives, he has a chance to rise above it."

- "Brother" Dave Gardner, 1960s-era satirist/comedian

Were he alive today, Gardner might be surprised to realize that his cynical 50-year-old comment can be invoked to help resolve issues that adversely affect the weakest and poorest Americans - including health care, housing and education. It also could prove useful in addressing a problem that's getting the attention it has long deserved: laws that strip ex-felons of their right to vote.

Maybe that is about to change. In last month's mid-term elections, Floridians approved Amendment 4, raising the probability that more than a million former prisoners will see their voting rights restored. (Persons convicted of murder and sexual crimes will not be included, although the governor and cabinet can restore their voting right on a case-by-case basis.)

The approval occurred about nine months after a federal judge declared the state's restoration procedure unconstitutional, ruling that "partisan officials have extraordinary authority to grant or withhold the right to vote from hundreds of thousands of people without any constraints, guidelines, or standards."

That rebuked Gov. Rick Scott, who in 2011 put in place a process that required persons to wait up to seven years just to apply and even more years for a decision. Of the nearly 30,000 who applied, only 3,005 had their right to vote restored under that process.

But now, what about Tennessee?

In 2014, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, using information provided by the Tennessee Advisory Committee, published "The Right to Vote and Ex-Felon Disenfranchisement in Tennessee." The report's letter of transmittal described Tennessee's disenfranchisement process as "one of the most restrictive in the nation," and one of 11 states that "permanently disenfranchise citizens from voting."

The result: ex-felons "may not be able to vote even after [they] have completed their sentences and satisfied" other conditions. It added that since 1984 some 160,000 had been banned from voting.

It is not impossible for Tennessee's ex-felons to regain the right to vote. But it is needlessly complicated and makes a mockery of the concept that they have "paid their debt to society."

Interesting word, "debt."

It's hard enough for ex-felons in Tennessee to get jobs that pay enough for living expenses. But a 2006 state law says they can't even apply for restoration of voting rights without having "paid restitution to the victims of their offense," and in applicable cases are current in child support obligations.

But there's another problem. The elections division of the Tennessee Secretary of State's office confirms that ex-felons wanting to regain the right to vote are required to pay the costs of their prosecution.

It's admittedly cynical to describe that as a form of a poll tax targeting only ex-felons - and never mind that the 24th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1964, forbade the use of poll taxes in the election of federal officials.

The larger issue is simple. By needlessly imposing conditions like those cited above, Tennessee is redefining the vote as a privilege instead of a right, at least for men and women who for whatever reason ended up in prison.

When persons are released after serving their sentence, the rest of us have an opportunity to help them become productive citizens by making it easier to become voters. State legislators should lead the way by removing obstacles that complicate former prisoners' efforts to regain their voting rights. The current procedure stains Tennessee's electoral process.

Michael Loftin is a former opinion page editor of The Chattanooga Times.

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