Regaining of vote by thousands of felons said to aid Democrats

[Nambe]

Palm Beach Post

Next year's Democratic presidential nominee could gain 1,500 to 3,000 votes in Florida thanks to a recent court order allowing some felons to vote, says a criminologist who studies felon voting issues.

That's a small but potentially pivotal number of votes in a state where the 2000 presidential election was decided by 537 ballots out of 6 million cast. -

Allowing felons to vote helps Democrats because people convicted of felonies likely will favor Democratic candidates by more than a 2-to-1 margin, says Christopher Uggen, a University of Minnesota professor who has written extensively on felon voting issues.

Uggen's estimate of felon partisanship is backed up by a 2001 Palm Beach Post analysis that found 5,643 likely felons managed to cast ballots in 2000 despite the state's ban on felon voting. Of these voters, 68 percent were registered Democrats.

Article: Gore would have won

[jiacinto]

1. And the GOP will use this article and say

That the Democrats are the "party of criminals and felons". Willie Horton II here we come.

[dfong63]

5. that's rich

... coming from the party that is letting corporate crooks Ken Lay and Bernie Ebbers off the hook.

the same party that lionizes Bush*, DUI driver and cocaine abuser, and his wife the vehicular murderer.

[CO Liberal]

15. And They're the Party of Embezzlers and Child Molesters

Right?

[TahitiNut]

16. I could respond by saying ....

... it proves beyond a reasonable doubt that demonstrably rightwing conservative police, prosecutors, and judges are bigoted against liberals in enforcing laws and prosecuting people, convicting Democrats twice as often as Republicans. I might go on to show an even greater disproportionality of convicted liberals in the most conservatively governed states like Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas.

Why do neoconservatives do this to liberals? Easy. They hate us for our freedoms!

:shrug:

[0rganism]

2. The big story they won't tell is about 50,000 voters purged...

...BECAUSE THEIR NAMES RESEMBLED THOSE OF FELONS.

At the order of Frau Harris, of course.

Ever wonder if most of those people would have voted for Gore?

[Yentatelaventa]

3. Why?

I'm looking for honest answers as to why felons would vote dem instead of other party or even vote at all?

[dfong63]

6. please note, the article should have referred to "ex-felons"

people who have served their time, paid their debt to society, etc etc.

considering that exactly what constitutes a "felony" is basically a political decision, it is not unreasonable to restore the ex-felons' right to vote.

[jiacinto]

7. But that's not how most people see it

nt

[w4rma]

9. the proper term is indeed EX-felons or EX-cons

felons and cons are IN jail.
ex-felons and ex-cons have been released from jail and have paid their debt to society.

[dfong63]

13. they might see it that way, if the newspapers would use the correct term

[TahitiNut]

17. Answer: See my post #16 above.

:eyes:

[WoodrowFan]

19. because

blacks charged with crimes (especially drug-related) are far more likely to go to jail than whites charged with crimes, so there are a disproportionate number of blacks in prison, and blacks tend to vote Democratic, thus allowing more exfelons to vote means more democratic votes.

[iam]

23. Why do ex-felons vote Democratic mostly?

Because Liberalism distributes power from the powerful to the non-powerful and former inmates are some of the least powerful amongst us.
Thats why immigrants vote Dem, why Af-Americans vote Dem, The poor, the disabled, gays, young persons. Only when someone gets powerful and does not want to share power (the way it was shared with them when they were powerless) does someone go bad (conservative).
Of course the above points are generalizations.

[Terran]

24. in this instance

a large percentage of the people whose names were struck from the Florida voter rolls by Harris and her paid minions as "possible felons" were African-American.

That's why.

Dirk

[demdave]

4. No doubt ..we are the party of felons and drug users

/sarcasm/ However I do have a problem with those that think your political view requires personal acts of violence.

[bluestateguy]

8. Distinguish between blue collar and white collar felons

I conceed the blue collar felon vote benefits Democrats, but the white collar felon vote--and they are more likely to actually vote--favors Republicans.

[AntiCoup2K4]

20. And that's because the white collar felons

(or white nosed felon, in Junior's case) are rarely incarcerated. Hence, no imprisonment - no loss of voting rights. How many felons work for the Bush Criminal Empire right now?

[w4rma]

10. Article should read, EX-felons or EX-cons *not* felons (n/t)

[teryang]

11. I wonder who got paid off

...to cook this Palm Beach headline. What are they trying to do? Scare the rich Democrats into voting repuke? This is where the new fascist electoral politics began.

[Dover]

12. Really? I thought prisons were a breeding ground for skin heads, nazis

and/or white supremecists. Maybe they're the minority.

[stickdog]

14. nice spin

How about the 80,000+ Floridian non-felons who LOST their right to vote in 2000 and 2002 (and 2004?) simply because their names sounded like that of a felon (or ex-felon) in another state?

[PATRICK]

18. IF they vote

Looking at the conditions I wager few of the tens of thousands of excluded voters(felons or not) will find it easy to get restored for 2004 beyond several thousand automatic restorations of totally innocent people. Grudgingly milking it both ways thanks to the good offices of their propaganda rag men.

[bif]

21. It'll even out

Once they pardon all the Enron Execs.

[Sinistrous]

22. You would think that felons would vote Republican

out of gratitude to bush for his employung so many of them in high government positions.

[slackmaster]

25. You're thinking of white-collar felons

A disproportionate (compared to the population) percentage of regular, everyday felons are racial minorities which tend toward Democratic.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

26. you mean the 94,000 illegally purged fla dems have been reinstated?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

27. does this mean that the Bush* family can now vote ...Noelle?