Christopher Uggen of the University of Minnesota and Jeff Manza of Northwestern University have been studying felon voting bans for five years.  I believe they address the question of felon voting rates in the following article, "Democratic Contraction? The Political Consequences of Felon Disenfranchisement in the United States." American Sociological Review 67:777-803.  In the article, the authors suggest that felon disenfranchisement is likely to have affected the outcome of the 2000 presidential election and 7 U.S. Senate elections. 

Uggen's website provides a link to this article, as well as several others on felon disenfranchisement.

http://www.soc.umn.edu/%7Euggen/FD_summary.htm

SAO

Professor Spencer Overton
The George Washington University Law School
2000 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052
(202)994-9794
soverton@law.gwu.edu
http://www.law.gwu.edu/facweb/soverton/




---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Deborah Goldberg" <deborah.goldberg@nyu.edu>
Date:  Wed, 09 Feb 2005 12:11:52 -0500

I don't know whether such data exists, but if it does, it is likely to be highly misleading.  What we do know is that there is widespread misinformation about whether people with felony convictions can vote, and many who can believe that they cannot (often because government officials tell them that they cannot or erect special barriers to registration).


________________________
Deborah Goldberg
Director, Democracy Program
212-998-6748
deborah.goldberg@nyu.edu

Brennan Center for Justice
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David Lublin <dlublin@american.edu> 02/09/05 10:03AM >>>

Not this is necessarily relevant to whether felons should have the franchise, but does anyone have data on the voting rates of ex-felons in states where they are not deprived the right to vote as compared people without felony convictions? 

David Lublin 
American University

 

 
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