Essay On Disenfranchisement

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Many conservative politicians and elected officials are realizing that electorate demographics are changing to include an influx of Asian-Americans, Latinos and African-Americans voters , particularly since the election of President Obama. The Republicans are stinging at the loss of the Presidency in 2008 and 2012, but are pleased with winning the majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate after the election in 2014. They are not confident that their majority will be maintained in the future and they want to win the Presidency in 2016. Because of their insecurities and aspirations, the conservatives are resorting to enacting or reverting to various methods to discourage or disenfranchise voters who would most likely be Democratic, …show more content…
criminal justice system" with "1.8 million of the 4.7 million ex-felons barred from voting are African Americans, felon disenfranchisement erodes the Democratic voting base of eligible African American voters" ( Uggen and Manza 780). Furthermore, this felon disenfranchisement is used against minority districts and pumps up white districts by using census protocol for political redistricting. Disenfranchisement is a tool that has taken the place of Jim Crow laws to impede the minority population from political involvement and representation. Felon disenfranchisement is a double edged sword for the African American, taking away his voting rights to support his community, taking away his count to add strength to his political district and their agendas and counting him as a statistic for a congressional district that usually does not embrace the same political values as he does. We are the only country in the "democratic world" that imposes such severe restrictions on such a "large group of nonicarcerated felons" which are made up of such a large percentage of blacks (Uggen and Manza 778). The standardization of enfranchisement of felons needs to be addressed to restore to a citizen his rights after his

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