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April 06, 2009
WA: Debt shouldn’t prevent restoration of voting rights
Debt shouldn’t prevent restoration of voting rights
THE NEWS TRIBUNE Editorial
Published: 03/24/09
Buying the right to vote is so contrary to the idea of democracy that many Washingtonians would be surprised to find out that it’s happening in their state.
Current state law enforces a double standard in restoring the voting rights of felons who’ve been released from state supervision. The ones with means to pay their court fines in full can vote; the ones who can only afford to pay down their debts bit by bit may have to wait years before they are deemed worthy of helping elect a mayor or approve a school bond.
Such disparate treatment effectively makes the right to vote depend on the contents of a released felons’ wallet. The state Supreme Court has upheld the policy as constitutional, but constitutional doesn’t mean fair. There is a good reason why most other states have less onerous restrictions, and it’s because a person’s bankroll should not determine their access to such a fundamental right as voting.
Fortunately, the Legislature may be inclined to finally remove debt as a barrier to the ballot box.
The effort is getting a boost from Secretary of State Sam Reed. He’s publicly supporting a House bill – and offering another compelling argument for disconnecting felons’ voting rights from their ability to pay.
For Reed, the issue is primarily a practical one. His office has been working since 2006 to clean up voter registration rolls. It has removed scores of dead, duplicate and incarcerated voters. But when it comes to ex-cons, Reed has no ready way to determine whether they belong on the voter rolls or not – short of checking each court file. No single court or Department of Corrections database tracks released felons’ outstanding financial obligations.
Back in 2002, the DOC estimated that more than 46,000 felons are barred from voting solely because they haven’t paid their fines – a number that is nearly impossible to confirm or track since the state has no central repository of that information.
State elections officials are concerned that the lack of reliable information, paired with a patchwork of laws that govern how voting rights are restored, make it more likely that eligible voters will be denied their right to vote and that ineligible voters will remain on the registration rolls.
They say they see no way to preserve the current two-pronged approach and ensure the accuracy of voter records. “If other solutions that more closely resemble current law were available, the secretary of state would be introducing such legislation,” a statement from the office says.
Lawmakers not persuaded that tying felons’ ballots to their bank accounts amounts to a modern-day poll tax should hear Reed out. The plight of felons barred from voting may not resonate universally, but ensuring clean elections certainly matters to most Washingtonians.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/editorials/story/686191.html
Posted by lois at April 6, 2009 09:36 PM