Should convicted felons lose their voting rights for good?
A large number of Tennessee voters don’t think that should be the case. According to The Tennessean, a “wide margin” of Tennesseans think that voting rights should be restored to convicted felons after the completion of their prison time.
A poll from nonpartisan advocacy group Secure Democracy says that 67% of Tennessee voters, plus or minus 4.3%, support legislation that would allow people with felony convictions to vote again after they’ve completed their sentences and paid their court fees.
The poll also shows that the support holds among both sides of the political spectrum, citing that 60% of Republicans and 78% of Democrats support the restoration of voting rights to felons.
The poll sampled 807 registered Tennessee voters in March and April, according to The Tennessean.
I view restrictions based on felony convictions akin to other voting restrictions such as age, sanity, citizenship and so on. However, this restriction is one that I also see as arbitrary.
Convicted felons, at least those who were rightly convicted, demonstrated poor judgment by committing a heinous crime, that I won’t argue over.
Felons currently in jail shouldn’t have the right to vote, as they have sacrificed their liberty when they decided to break the law.
Punishment, however, should only go so far as to teach people a lesson. To me, being left to sit in a prison cell for a time delegated by a court of law is enough of a punishment to teach offenders, at least most of the time.
To deprive someone of their ability to vote after serving their time and facing the wrath of the law while they continue to live in the U.S. is pointless to me.
Felons might not have the best judgment in the world, but do all non-criminals have good enough judgment to make an educated vote? I guarantee that not all non-criminal, legal voters above the age of 17 don’t have the best judgment, yet they still have a vote over those who have lost theirs.
I believe that everyone deserves a second chance, and that once the time has been served and deeds repaid, the felon should be able to vote again.
It’s worth noting that felons can have their voting rights restored at some point in Tennessee, but that procedure is fairly complicated.
For instance, in Tennessee, felons must be up-to-date on all of their child support payments, even if those payments have nothing to do with the felony conviction. That just doesn’t seem right.
In a country that cherishes its principles of freedom and democracy, more people should be on board with extending voting rights to people who have served their required prison time.
Continuing to deny former criminals voting rights extends beyond justice and only breeds the opposite.
