prisoner votes.

Appaerently "the percentage of citizens eligable to vote in national elections is substantially smaller in the United States than any other industrial democracy"(Alan Abromowitz, Voice of the People, 2004).
This leads to a rant I have. Should we take the right to vote away from felons? It seems that taking this right away can lead to some terrible things. In very high crime areas (DC, LA) this law could have a substantial significance. Relating to thism I also see how there is a lot of potential for racism when your right to vote can be taken away. If you know anything about the history of drugs in America, you know that opium was banned to make the Chinese into criminals and marijuana was banned to make the Mexicans into criminals. Certainly their use led to social harms, but it wasn't until their use becamse associated with a minority group that they becamse illegal.
Clearly felons have rights. They are independent adults who (likely) commited a crime. Most of us have never commited felonies, but I imagine if you got arrested every time you have ever broken a crime (speeding, under-age drinking, fireworks, unliscensed gambling, smoking illicits, illegal downloading, et cetera) you would probably have a cell not to far from these fellows. Yet in essence what we are saying to felons in america (and many non-felon criminals) is:
If you break the law,
you no longer get to vote who makes the law.


The one thing that would make it difficult if felons could vote:
boondock Counties with large prison populations. If the prisoners made up a majority of an area they could vote in some bad mamma' jammas' to local office.