When Michael Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison on felony charges, he lost more than his freedom, he lost his right to vote. In fact, millions of United States citizens are being forced to pay for their right to vote. As of 2016, at least 6.1 million Americans who are former felons were banned from voting.
Today, 48 states have some form of barrier to felon voter participation, with at least 30 states having laws that require former felons to pay before they can vote. Only two states, Maine and Vermont, and most recently Washington, D.C., do not strip felons of their voting rights, and even allow them to vote whileserving their sentence.
Felony disenfranchisement has a deep-rooted, political history in the U.S. but was intensified by Richard Nixon’s war on drugs in the ‘70s. Felony disenfranchisement rates skyrocketed from roughly 1.2 million in 1976 to 6.1 million in 2016. In the U.S., someone is arrested for drug possession every 25 seconds, and nearly 80% of people in federal prison for drug offenses are Black or Hispanic.
CORRECTION (October 21, 2020): An earlier version of this video incorrectly implied President Trump appointed members to Florida’s Supreme Court rather than the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
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Why Some Americans Are Paying $350K To Vote
26 авг 2024