[EL] "The Racist Origins of Felon Disenfranchisement"

Wed Nov 19 10:31:24 PST 2014

There is of course a middle ground between privilege and unqualified right, as the treatment of firearms ownership and possession by felons suggests (and for that matter, the very nature of incarceration). And there’s a wide range of restrictions on voting that I suspect almost everybody here supports, starting with a minimum voting age (with some disagreement on where that minimum should be set, but no disagreement that there should be a minimum).

Sean Parnell

President

Impact Policy Management, LLC

6411 Caleb Court

Alexandria, VA  22315

571-289-1374 (c)

sean at impactpolicymanagement.com

From: Rob Richie [mailto:rr at fairvote.org] 
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2014 1:15 PM
To: Sean Parnell
Cc: Rick Hasen; law-election at UCI.EDU
Subject: Re: [EL] "The Racist Origins of Felon Disenfranchisement"

I would say the real origin relates to a conversation we still have today: is voting primarily a privilege or an unqualified right of adult citizenship? The 19th century experienced a general wide expansion of suffrage rights, but started with a very limited pool of eligible voters. A great book on this history is Alex Keyssar's "The Right to Vote."

I would suggest, along with Keyssar, Jamie Raskin, Lani Guinier and various others that we still would benefit from taking on that conversation directly, although am aware that some respected scholars like Rick Hasen and Heather disagree.

Rob Richie

On Nov 19, 2014 10:56 AM, "Sean Parnell" <sean at impactpolicymanagement.com> wrote:

There’s a bit of a disconnect in the data and the conclusion regarding the opinion piece ““The Racist Origins of Felon Disenfranchisement.” There was indeed an “explosion” in felon disenfranchisement laws in the post-Civil War era, specifically the late 1860’s and 1870’s. But two points are worth making:

1.       Many states had felon disenfranchisement laws before the Civil War – California, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Wisconsin, according to the research cited by the article’s author. This suggests an origin of felon disenfranchisement laws other than racism.

2.       Many of the states that adopted felon disenfranchisement laws in the ‘60s and ‘70s were indeed Southern states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas), which would seem to fit nicely with the idea that it was racism driving these laws, except that to the best of my recollection most if not all of these states were under the control of the ‘Radical Republicans’ pursuing the Reconstruction agenda, which relied to some degree on maximizing black turnout in order to maintain political control – suggesting something else perhaps motivating the passage of these laws. I should also note that Colorado, Illinois, Missouri, and Nebraska were among the states adding felon disenfranchisement laws to their books in this time period, I don’t know about IL and MO but to the best of my knowledge neither Colorado or Nebraska had quite the toxic racist sentiments that prevailed in much of the old Confederacy. 

I should note, I haven’t had (and won’t have) the time to verify #2, that state legislatures were under the control of Radical Republicans relying on black votes in each or most of the states passing felon disenfranchisement laws, I’d be interested in hearing if I’ve misunderstood or misremembered this situation.

It would not surprise me at all to learn that in the post-Reconstruction era the Jim Crow Democrats had racist motives for continuing and expanding the reach of such laws. But the two points above suggest there isn’t much history to support the contention that the origin of felon disenfranchisement laws is rooted in racism.

Best,

Sean Parnell

President

Impact Policy Management, LLC

6411 Caleb Court

Alexandria, VA  22315

571-289-1374 (c)

sean at impactpolicymanagement.com

 <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=68485> “The Racist Origins of Felon Disenfranchisement”

Posted on  <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=68485> November 18, 2014 8:55 pm by  <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3> Rick Hasen

 <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/19/opinion/the-racist-origins-of-felon-disenfranchisement.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region&region=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region&_r=0> Brent Staples NYT Editorial Observer column.

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