Voice of the Ex-Offender (VOTE) and 8 individuals filed a class action voting rights challenge for 70,000 people in Louisiana saying they are illegally prohibited from voting.* The VOTE suit charges that the Louisiana legislature wrongfully and unconstitutionally passed a law disallowing people convicted of felonies from voting if they are on probation or parole.
VOTE’s suit points out that the Louisiana Constitution only prohibits people who are “under an order of imprisonment” from voting and that this was intended only to prohibit people actually in prison or escapees from voting. The VOTE suit further notes that the Louisiana state constitutional convention voted down an attempt to restrict voting for people on probation.
The class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of the 70,000 people in Louisiana who are probation or parole. The US Department of Justice reports over 41,000 people in Louisiana are on probation and over 27,000 are on parole.
It was filed in Baton Rouge and names the State of Louisiana, the Governor and the Secretary of State as defendants.
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2 comments:
You shouldn't be allowed to vote if you are on welfare or any entitlement from the government.
I can see their point should the convict fulfill their condition of punishment and no longer be under supervised probation because for the most part they have paid their debt to society and certain constitutional rights should be restored. However, if the convict is still on supervised probation then their debt to society has not truly been repaid so, therefore those rights that are removed while incarcerated still do not apply.
Just my two cents.
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