Voter registration drive for convicts, ex-felons to begin this weekend
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By Jim Cook
Published: August 15, 2008
Local activist Kenneth Glasgow will visit jails and prisons throughout the state this weekend to register inmates to vote.
Glasgow’s voter registration drive is part of All of Us or None, a national initiative to re-enfranchise people who have been stripped of their rights to vote because of felony convictions.
“What we’re doing is trying to get information and educate ex-felons and non ex-felons because there’s been a misunderstanding about who can vote and who can’t,” Glasgow said.
Until recently, inmates and most felons released from prison did not have the right to vote in Alabama.
Ed Packard, Alabama state supervisor of voter registration, said a 1996 amendment to the Alabama Constitution and a lawsuit and attorney general’s opinion interpreting the amendment restored voting rights to felons not convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude.
This means ex-felons and felons currently serving time who were convicted of minor felonies such as felony DUI, attempted burglary, battery, aiding and abetting escape and some drug possession offenses are eligible to vote. Those convicted of crimes such as murder, rape, forgery, etc. can’t vote.
Glasgow estimates the change in voting laws could enfranchise about 70,000 Alabama residents who were previously barred from voting because of felony convictions.
The voting drive is just part of Glasgow’s efforts with convicted felons. Glasgow said he intends to lobby for changes that would make it easier for ex-convicts to obtain welfare and student loan benefits that their felony status currently bars them from receiving.
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( Stephen ) on August 20, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Excellent News and Kudos to Kenneth Glasgow and his efforts! I was excited to stumble upon this article because I am under tacking the exact same campaign here in California. My drive along with Mr. Glasgows’ objectives are similar in that many individuals released from California’s Prisons don’t even know that they even have the right to vote and I hope to “Spread the News”, register as many of these individuals as I can but most importantly seek theirs and their visiting friends and families support and ensure their vote on two very important Propositions on this Novembers ballot. Proposition 5, a first of its kind and the best step in the right direction along with a “YES” vote will finally allow voters to voice their utter dissatisfaction with the current way of running the States Prison Industry and allow for the shifting societal views to prevail by providing “Treatment over Incarceration”. Proposition 6, an idea on the complete opposite side and of course backed by Unions that help to arrest, prosecute and then manage their lives back to prison after release or in better words those who help to ensure their own job security by keeping the prisons overcrowded, rejoicing recidivism and keeping the “revolving doors of justice” open for business by also attempting to make this goal easier by allowing “Hearsay” to be admissible in court are requesting another half billion dollars to avoid the unemployment lines themselves. So like Mr. Glasgow, I find it extremely important to further the cause of registering all individuals able to vote. I’m counting on their votes to “Keep 5 Alive” and “Nix 6”
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Posted by ( RIVERZ ) on August 15, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Good Grief! What’s next? Is Glasgow gonna bring them some milk and cookies too? Go out of your way to accomodate a criminal! Makes sense though, crooks voting to put white collar crooks into office!
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