{"id":107801,"date":"2014-02-13T17:36:33","date_gmt":"2014-02-13T17:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=107801"},"modified":"2014-02-13T17:36:33","modified_gmt":"2014-02-13T17:36:33","slug":"people-color-losing-right-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/latest-news\/people-color-losing-right-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"People of Color Are Losing Their Right to Vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amy Goodman\u00a0<\/strong>
\nRINF Alternative News<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI found myself standing in front of railroad tracks in South Florida. I was waiting on the train to come so I could jump in front of it and end my life.\u201d So recounted Desmond Meade, describing his life nine years ago. He was homeless, unemployed, recently released from prison and addicted to drugs and alcohol. The train never came. He crossed the tracks and checked himself into a substance-abuse program. He went on to college, and now is just months away from receiving his law degree.<\/p>\n

Meade, however, will not be able to practice law in Florida. As a former felon, he cannot join the bar. That is one of his rights that has been stripped, permanently, by Florida\u2019s draconian laws. In a democracy, if one wants to change a law, you vote for lawmakers who will represent your views. Yet, as an ex-felon in Florida, Meade also has lost the right to vote for the rest of his life.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s called \u201cfelony disenfranchisement,\u201d and is permanent in 11 states: Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, Tennessee, Virginia and Wyoming. It\u2019s enforced in differing degrees, like a patchwork, across the U.S. In 13 states and the District of Columbia, you get your rights back upon release from prison. In others, you have to get through your probation or parole. In Maine and Vermont, prisoners retain the right to vote, even while incarcerated.<\/p>\n

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder addressed the issue this week at a legal symposium at Georgetown University:<\/p>\n

\u201cAcross this country today, an estimated 5.8 million Americans\u20135.8 million of our fellow citizens\u2013are prohibited from voting because of current or previous felony convictions. That\u2019s more than the individual populations of 31 U.S. states.\u201d Close to 6 million Americans, denied the basic right to vote. Because of the racial disparities in our penal system, African-American and Latino men are vastly disproportionately denied the right to vote. Holder continued, \u201cThe current scope of these policies is not only too significant to ignore\u2013it is also too unjust to tolerate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Georgetown event was co-sponsored by The Leadership Conference, a coalition of civil-rights, legal and human-rights groups. Last September, the group released a report titled \u201cDemocracy Imprisoned.\u201d In it, the group writes, \u201cFlorida\u2019s disenfranchisement rate remains the highest and most racially disparate in the United States.\u201d It is no coincidence that this key swing state is home to more than 1 million of the nation\u2019s nearly 6 million disenfranchised.<\/p>\n