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On November 7,
millions won't be
allowed to vote!
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Suffrage, the bedrock
of the Constitution,
is being eroded in the
name of the War on Drugs.
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There are nearly four million persons currently or permanently disenfranchised
as a result of laws that take away the voting rights of felons and ex-felons.
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No other democracy besides the U.S. disenfranchises convicted offenders for life.
Many democratic nations, including Denmark, France, Israel, and Poland, permit
prisoners to vote as well.
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Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of the disenfranchised are not in prison but
are on probation, on parole or have completed their sentences.
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1.4 million African American men -- 13 percent of the adult African American
male population -- have lost the right to vote, a rate of disenfranchisement that
is seven times the national average. By comparison, in the 1996 general election
4.6 million African American men voted.
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In Florida one in three African American men has permanently lost the right
to vote.
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In five states Iowa, Mississippi, New Mexico, Virginia, and Wyoming one in
four black men (24% to 28%) have permanently lost the right to vote.
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Can we expect people to be responsible citizens
if they are treated as second class citizens?
Common Sense for Drug Policy, Kevin B. Zeese, President
703-354-9050, 703-354-5695 (fax), info@csdp.org,
www.csdp.org
Sources: Fellner, Jamie and Mauer, Marc, "Losing the Vote: The Impact of Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United
States (Washington, DC: Human Rights Watch & The Sentencing Project, 1998).
Mauer, Marc and Allard, Patricia, "Regaining the Vote: An Assessment of Activity Relating to Felon Disenfranchisement
Laws" (Washington, DC: Sentencing Project, January 2000), from the web at
http://www.sentencingproject.org/news/regainvote.htm,
last accessed Sept. 27, 2000.
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