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A number of scholars have found that enacting MORE RESTRICTIVE felon
disfranchisement laws are connected to explanations of racial threat and
to dilute the strength of black voting power. V.O. Key (1949) in
_Southern Politics_ includes felon disfranchisement in his list of
disfranchising mechanisms used in the South to keep blacks from voting.
Alex Keyssar's book
_The Right to Vote_ argues similarly. Angela
Behrens, Chris Uggen, and Jeff Manza find that the greater the perceived
racial threat by whites, the more likely restrictive felon
disfranchisement laws are enacted during the period 1850 to 2002 in an
article in the
_American Journal of Sociology_ (published in 2003?).
In recent years, however, states that have enacted LESS RESTRICTIVE
felon disfranchisement laws (e.g., removing barriers by getting rid of
ex-felon disfranchisement but retaining felon disfranchisement) have
done so due to partisan considerations, and racial threat does not
appear to be an explanation. Antoine Yoshinaka and I have examined the
enactment of less restrictive felon disfranchisement policies in the
U.S. states from 1960-1999.
For those interested, here's a link to my article with Antoine Yoshinaka
on this subject:
http://www.lawrence.edu/fast/grosec/Yoshinaka_Grose_State_Felon_Policy_Change.pdf
Christian Grose
--
Christian Grose
Lawrence University
Department of Government
208 Briggs Hall
Box 599
Appleton, WI 54912-0599
920-993-6273
christian.grose@lawrence.edu
http://www.lawrence.edu/fast/grosec
Lloyd Mayer wrote:
>> Jonathan Gass wrote:
>>
>> "As Frank Askin pointed out, felon disenfranchisement in operation
>> dilutes black voting (which, from my admittedly fragmentary knowledge
>> of the reasons why felon disenfranchisement laws were adopted in the
>> first place, is hardly coincidental)."
>>
>> Has anyone studied the degree to which felon disenfranchisement laws
>> were adopted in order to dilute black or other minority voting?
>>
>> Lloyd H. Mayer
>> Caplin & Drysdale, Chartered
>> One Thomas Circle, NW, Suite 1100
>> Washington, DC 20005
>> tel: 202-862-5056; fax: 202-429-3301
>>
lhm@capdale.com;
www.caplindrysdale.com
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