Regarding changing state disfranchisement laws via state legislative means:
I published an article last year with Antoine Yoshinaka that examined
legislative attempts over the last 40 years to enact laws that enfranchised
felons. We found that unified party state governments that were controlled by
Democrats, BUT in states with high levels of Republican voters for national
offices like president were most likely to take action to enfranchise felons.
This was due to the fact that those Democrats who controlled Republican-leaning
states did not assume Democratic control would last long: thus, the states
likely acted quickly to enfranchise a group of voters likely to help maintain
their control of state government--before the Democratic legislatures lost
control of the government.
So similar to Rick's posting regarding the utility of using the legislature to
achieve changes regarding felon disfranchisement, those interested in
overturning existing felon disfranchisement laws may want to target Democratic
states where the legislature's control may not last given the underlying
Republican partisanship in the electorate. We do not argue that legislative
change is normatively better, but simply lay out what states were most likely to
change thier laws. If 2006 turns out to be a Democratic year in some typically
Republican states, reformers might want to strike while the iron is hot.
If anyone is interested in a copy of the article, let me know by email. The
citation is Antoine Yoshinaka and Christian R. Grose, 2005. "Partisan Politics
and Electoral Design: The Enfranchisement of Felons and Ex-felons in the U.S.,
1960-1999." State and Local Government Review 37:1 (Winter).
Christian Grose
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Grose, Christian Robert
Assistant Professor of Political Science
Vanderbilt University
Email: christian.r.grose@Vanderbilt.Edu
http://sitemason.vanderbilt.edu/psci/faculty#grose
Quoting Jon Roland <jon.roland@constitution.org>:
You might find a useful line of argument in such cases in my law review
article
"Public Safety or Bills of Attainder?", University of West Los Angeles Law
Review,
Vol. 35, 2003. http://www.constitution.org/col/psrboa.htm It's focus is on
firearms rights but the arguments apply to disenfranchisements as well.
-- Jon
----------------------------------------------------------------
Constitution Society 7793 Burnet Road #37, Austin, TX 78757
512/374-9585 www.constitution.org jon.roland@constitution.org
----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Grose, Christian Robert
Vanderbilt University
Email: christian.r.grose@Vanderbilt.Edu