Pertaining to the last poll...
Sep. 15th, 2004 10:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tylikFor those of you who feel that there should be at least some interruption in voting rights of convicted felons (a clear majority, BTW), does anyone care to describe the means by which they reached this conclusion?
I'm not actually decided myself. But as I was thinking about this (and thinking about at least one dear friend of mine who is a felon -- for defending himself after being assaulted while drunk) I also started thinking of rising prison populations in general, and that incarceration is often concentrated so strongly in particular communities. Which made me think about one group of people having the power to mandate mass disenfranchisement on another group.
I'm still thinking ;-)
I'm not sure where I come down on imprisonment and punishment in general. But... there are different ways one can look at the mechanism of a vote in society. I'm not certain that as a society we don't *need* such input from all of our members, even, perhaps especially, those we feel the least kinship with and sympathy for. What exactly do we create when we push people outisde of that circle of citizenship? When we reduce someone's stake, can it possibly help us?
(Not to even mention that "felon" is such a slippery and weird term, covering such a broad range of things. I'm not certain about my previous point, but I think I am certain that "felonies" are not a measure I feel comfortable with as a yardstick.)
If the percentage of felons in a population is small, then it doesn't really matter very much whether they can or cannot vote, yes? And as the percentage grows larger, it seems to me that we can less and less afford to deny them representation -- if they are a large enough number of effect a vote, then very likely they should.
Maybe to put it another way, I'm not certain that one's vote is only a privledge.
I'm not actually decided myself. But as I was thinking about this (and thinking about at least one dear friend of mine who is a felon -- for defending himself after being assaulted while drunk) I also started thinking of rising prison populations in general, and that incarceration is often concentrated so strongly in particular communities. Which made me think about one group of people having the power to mandate mass disenfranchisement on another group.
I'm still thinking ;-)
I'm not sure where I come down on imprisonment and punishment in general. But... there are different ways one can look at the mechanism of a vote in society. I'm not certain that as a society we don't *need* such input from all of our members, even, perhaps especially, those we feel the least kinship with and sympathy for. What exactly do we create when we push people outisde of that circle of citizenship? When we reduce someone's stake, can it possibly help us?
(Not to even mention that "felon" is such a slippery and weird term, covering such a broad range of things. I'm not certain about my previous point, but I think I am certain that "felonies" are not a measure I feel comfortable with as a yardstick.)
If the percentage of felons in a population is small, then it doesn't really matter very much whether they can or cannot vote, yes? And as the percentage grows larger, it seems to me that we can less and less afford to deny them representation -- if they are a large enough number of effect a vote, then very likely they should.
Maybe to put it another way, I'm not certain that one's vote is only a privledge.
