Right To Vote Essay

In the United States, according to Uggen et al, there are roughly 234,564,100 people who are of voting age. However, because of the felon disenfranchising laws, about 5,852,180 people are not allowed to vote. That is approximately 2.5% or 1 out of every 40 people barred from voting because of previous or current felony conviction (Uggen et al, ). This is the highest it has been since the 1960s.
Although some say that voting is a right that shouldn’t be taken away, criminals who are convicted of a felony should have that right suspended until their sentence and probation are completed and a set number of years has passed without a recurrence of conviction.
The right to vote has not always been a right that everyone has enjoyed. The US has a long history of denying people the vote based on their religion, …show more content…
In the case Baker v. Pataki, two minority groups, African-Americans and Latinos, brought the case that the laws denying voting rights to felons in prison and on parole was unconstitutional because it had a disproportionate effect on the minorities. The lower court dismissed the case saying that the Constitution allowed states to bar felons and that the Voting Rights Act didn’t apply; however a three-judge panel changed that decision. They said that the plaintiffs should have a chance to try their complaints but that they would need to prove intentional racial discrimination instead of merely disproportionate racial effect. A panel of ten judges then heard the evidence but they were evenly divided so the ruling of the lower court stood. The judges that agreed that it was constitutional thought that the VRA which outlawed voting laws that would cause racial discrimination did not pertain to the constitutionality of disenfranchising laws because Congress didn’t say explicitly that they were for that purpose (Key