The words "convicted felon" can leave an awful ring in our ears.
According to the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, one in 11 Texans is a felon. And although the majority of those felons have committed nonviolent crimes, they've all been denied the right to vote.
Thousands of acts carry felony charges, including stealing cable service and electrocuting fish. Spraying graffiti is a felony offense if property damage totals more than $1,500 or if it is done to a church, cemetery, community center or fence enclosing a commercial cattle farm.
TCJC estimates there are nearly 20,000 inmates serving time for drug offenses in Texas, about 5,000 of whom were sentenced for possessing small quantities. Thousands more are doing time for driving with alcohol levels over the legal limit. A third DWI offense is punishable by up to a 10-year sentence in Texas, and possession of any amount of drugs (other than marijuana and prescription medications) is also a felony.
These offenders could benefit more from treatment than prison time, and they surely shouldn't lose their right to vote.
Texas law states that felons can regain voting rights after completing their sentence. But for some, a sentence could mean years of a normal, healthy lifestyle on parole. We are a step ahead of Kentucky and Virginia, which disenfranchise felons for life. But we fall behind a number of states that allow parolees to vote. Virginia and Maine even allow voting in prisons.
There are more than 5.3 million felons nationwide who can't vote due to a conviction, and 2.1 million have completed their sentences, according to The Sentencing Project. These numbers are reason enough for the U.S. to explore other suffrage models. Up until 2002, Canada only allowed prisoners serving sentences of less than two years to vote, but their Supreme Court found that law to be unconstitutional.
Now, any Canadian adult can vote, and because the U.S. puts felon voting rights in the hands of the states, it has avoided Supreme Court scrutiny.
In many parts of Europe, such as France and Germany, stripping the right to vote is considered an additional punishment the court can impose. This system makes the most sense, as it sustains democratic values by actually recognizing individuals on a case-by-case basis. It doesn't subject a serial killer and an ex-drug addict to the same loss of rights.
In Texas, there are 550,000 felons in prison and nearly 440,000 on probation. For many of them, the power of a ballot in their hand could far outweigh the seriousness of their crime. That power was seen (or not seen) in Florida during the very close 2000 presidential election. Sociologists who have long studied felon disenfranchisement say lost votes mean a built-in advantage for Republicans.
For years, Florida has disenfranchised felons for life. But last month, Gov. Charlie Crist convinced Florida's clemency board to give voting rights back to more than 800,000 former prisoners whose crimes were deemed nonviolent. Had this reform taken place before 2000, these ex-felons would have decided the election, in which President Bush won by a margin of 537 votes.
Texas is in a position to create momentum for reform. A bill on the legislative calendar authored by Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, would require the Criminal Justice Department to mail a notice and voter registration card to ex-criminals when their sentence is up. Ex-criminals often fear voter registration, which translates into putting their name in a public database after years of being barred from society. And since defense attorneys are mainly concerned with litigation, they don't inform ex-felons of their reintegration rights.
Not all felons are cold-blooded murderers, but they all have firsthand experience with the criminal justice system. As a result, many likely have an invested interest in institutional reform, or a fresh, active outlook on life after wrongdoing. Like Europe, U.S. lawmakers should move toward a system in which disenfranchisement is not automatic - a system that provides felons a chance at democracy.
Rep. Dutton's HB 770 is a step in the right direction. It would serve as a "welcome back" to ex-felons - an invitation to start anew as a positive impact on society. Such empowerment would have a huge impact on voter turnout and is necessary in fighting recidivism in ex-criminals.
What better way to instill civic pride and patriotism in those citizens who have experienced a side of the criminal justice system our lawmakers have never seen.
Harlin is a Latin American studies and journalism senior.
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