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Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R)
Once someone is convicted of a felony, they lose their voting rights, even after their sentence is complete. In some states, it's a little easier to reclaim one's voting rights; in other states, not so much.
Take Iowa, for example.
Gov. Terry Branstad (R) has made Iowa "one of the most difficult states in the nation for felons to vote," thanks to a rather ridiculous executive order. While Branstad's predecessor, Democrat Tom Vilsack, created a system whereby felons automatically regained their voting rights once they were discharged from state supervision, Branstad made the process vastly more difficult.
Ex-felons, for example, have to complete a lengthy questionnaire that includes the address of the judge who handled the conviction, pay a filing fee, and submit a full credit report. (If you file a summary of your credit report, the application to restore your rights will be rejected.)
Ed Kilgore's reaction is the right one.
A credit report to regain the right to vote? That's about the most revealing reflection of latter-day Republican values I've seen in a while.... There's not a question in my mind that these people would reinstitute poll taxes if the courts and Grover Norquist would let them.
Ed's post also noted a quote from Iowa's Republican Secretary of State, Matt Schultz, who said he supports Branstad's restrictions, because they "send a message to Iowa's voters that their voting privilege is sacred and will not be compromised."
Perhaps now would be a good time to remind GOP officials that in our system of government, we're not supposed to treat voting rights as a "privilege."
Kevin Drum, meanwhile, summarized the point of all of this: "Felons, of course, tend to be poorer, blacker, and younger than the general population, which means they're more likely to vote for Democrats than the general population. So who cares if they've paid their debt to society? A tendency to vote for Democrats is mighty suspicious behavior all on its own, no?"
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I can hardly wait for Shooter to show up and explain why this is perfectly reasonable.
Yes, it should be entertaining in that "freak show at the carnival" kind of way; it's nothing you'd like to see or think is appropriate to the real world, but worth a laugh.
To open a business in Greece, one of the requirements is a stool sample. A credit report isn't as bad but still silly. Either disallow felons the vote or not.
Well that would mean many Republican Political and Religious leaders / felons from the past wont be voting. ( The list found at this link does not include more recent felons )
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/01/17/438438/-GOP-List-of-Corruption-Update-Primary-Edition
GOP ( Champions Of Family Values ) List of Corruption Update:
Works for me. Unlike the Democrats we don't need to rest our electoral hopes on felons.
"we don't need to rest or electoral hopes on felons."
You are absolutely right. You guys just legislate voter ID laws to disenfranchise the elderly and people of color, aka CHEAT to win elections.
Just sayin.
Democrats don't either. We're just interested in "liberty and justice for all", or is that too outdated a concept for the modern GOP?
Ah, so this is Shooter or should I say, Mr. Snark. I would think that once one had paid one's debt to society, voting RIGHTS would be back on the table.
Soon everyone that is a registered democrat in a red state will have to prove they have good credit,have a drivers liscense,have a credit card,are not a socialist,dislike mexicans,own an assault rifle and they or anyone they know are not felons.
Uh, I don't think they want us owning our own assault rifles. After all oppressed people can be dangerous.
Dems don't have the balls to be dangerous. (too bad)
Jane,
Liberal Guilt isn't pretty.
And there's the crux of the GOP mentality, brought to us here by the likes of Shooter: voting is a privilege, magnanimously granted to us by our betters in the interest of "fairness", as long as we can pay the poll taxes and provide all the necessary documentation, and as long as we vote the right way... A complete crock, and even more reason to disinvite the GOP from our government.
Thank you for saying that. Except that you were too nice "disinvite" gives the notion that they came to the government to WORK for US & not obstruct US.
State by state they move against democracy. Soon they will ban all rights not earned by worshipping the far right and its wealthy sponsors.
America, what a country!
I agree with Mr. Campbell. I think what the majority are hesitant to do though, is call a spade a spade. This is racism in one of its higher forms. And your theory is absolutely correct, comment #4 is far more serious and dangerous that we know... this is only the beginning of another civil war, however it will be more like what happened in France, rich against poor than against the color barriers.
Sorry people, only citizens can vote. If you can't show you're a citizen, you can't vote. No matter what race you are.
If you've got grounds to challenge their citizenship, THEN they can't vote. Or is the method that we've used for generations not good enough for you? Guess we need to go back and eliminate all the bills passed by Reagan; nobody verified the citizenship of those voters, so it's all illegitimate!
Shouldn't you have to be proven NOT to be a citizen in order to NOT be allowed to vote? as opposed to have to prove you ARE a citizen?
I mean, I am filling out a voter registration and attesting that I am a US citizen. Shouldn't I be taken at my word? Wouldn't that be in keeping with "due process of the law"?
The goal of the republicans is to have a one party system. Look at the countries in Europe who have a one party system. Is this really what we want?
How many countries in Europe have a one party system ? A couple of them only have a dominant party (Russia, Georgia and Azerbaijan), but I can't think of one that only has one party. Not too bad when you consider that there are 50 countries (or thereabouts) that make up Europe.
dfabs4, perhaps you've heard the old saw that one can't prove a negative? As for taking people at their word... not a chance. Airports won't let me fly on my word, can't drive, can't even get into DOJ headquarters without an ID.
It's not proving a negative; it's proving the positive status of lacking citizenship. People are taken at their word all the time; when testifying in court, when swearing affidavits, heck, we even take politicians at their word when they take the oath of office, and they're generally joked about as the least trustworthy of anyone! What's more, that system has worked for 200+ years, and I have yet to see you conclusively disprove that. Just because you claim things are different doesn't mean they are, and the fact that this is suddenly a burning need for the GOP after so long betrays its true purpose, as does the unguarded words of some of its members.
Now I've heard everything. Must one be a homeowner to vote next? How about a corporation? Must one be a corporation to vote? I've heard they're people too..
The way things are going, the corporations may be the ONLY voters left. Wouldn't that be fun?
Someone should challenge this on 14th Amendment grounds, since nobody else has to prove their creditworthiness in order to vote.
If the people in this country who have less than stellar credit scores were to lose the right to vote, turnout in this fall's election would be pretty meager.
IANAL, but I read this yesterday and wondered why this provision is not a Bill of Attainder. It selects one group and makes demands beyond what other groups have to abide by...maybe there is an attorney-reader that can answer that. I'm sure there must be some provision I do not understand.
If you read the original AP article, they explain that the credit report is to make sure that all outstanding court fines & fees (including any restitution) has been paid. I'm not sure why they can't just check through the state department of revenue, or the court system, however.
The Republicans in the state have long taken the view that simply completing incarceration does not pay one's debt to society -- the debt is only paid when all the financial obligations are also paid. But for felons who often have trouble finding work in the first place, this may mean for many of them that they never get back their right to vote, in spite of the fact that would help them reintegrate into society.
The discussion on Drum's post yesterday also suggested a constitutional challenge, but some cases were cited that uphold the right of the state to do things like this. Take a look at that discussion for more detail.
I don't give a flying flip whether I have paid all of my property taxes, or whatever the gov comes up with, I still should be able to vote on election day! That is crock...
@jsjiowa - Thank you for putting this story in context. The Maddow Blog seems to omit the full story frequently.
So NOW can we get the pitchforks & torches? These people are traitors, liars, and power hungry - and are willing to do whatever it takes to institute their draconian ideology that transfers democracy to plutocracy! Vote them out in November!
If I weren't 60 years old and disabled, I'd be buying up the pitch forks and torches. I fear we need to show these people how they are supposed to do things. They have taken control of the power, and they are not willing to give it back.
Glad to see that you think that the Democrats need to be ousted.
Really? You think it's the Democrats that are passing draconian voter ID laws? Turn off Fox news and read a newspaper or something. You might learn some truths.
Gabby,
Those on the right have little or no use for objective reality. Ideological Soundness/Theological Correctness are all that matter to them.
I agree fully with Ed's comment on requiring a credit report as part of regaining the franchise after gettiing out of prison.
But the rest of it's bad too. A filing fee? Money should never enter in to whether or not one can vote, period. That's what it meant when we got rid of the poll tax.
And the address of the judge who presided over one's conviction? Excuse me, but why would you want convicted felons to find out the address of the judge who sent them up? Doesn't that seem like a bad idea, if only because of the occasional ex-felon that might consider using that information in the wrong way?
Not to mention, that's exactly the sort of information that the government's much better at tracking down if it needs it than a private citizen is, even in this age of Google.
This really puts the burdens on the wrong people, and of course it's easy to see why they're doing it that way.
I'm assuming that's the judge's business (COURT) address, not his home address.
It is so immoral that we had billions of our hard earned tax dollars stolen by Halliburton and VP ' Monster in Chief ' Chenny, and that thousands of our young soldiers were sent to their deaths, in order to bomb the brown people of the Middle East into becoming a Democracy while here in the US Democracy is almost a distant memory.
I know I am not the first person to bring this up but I think it should be shouted from the roof tops every day !
Actually Hope, I think we bombed the brown people of Iraq because Cheney's friends wanted their oil. I don't think that Cheney (and all the others ended up in the Bush administration and who signed the manifesto for regime change in Iraq at PNAC in 1995) really gave a rat's knuckle about democracy.
You are so correct. But the cover of course was that we were there to help them have Democracy. Yeah Right.
Credit reports are notorious for factual error and nearly impossible to correct and thus undependable. Just because there are various forms of identification required for certain things does not by itself mean it is therefore OK to require these ID or other ID for whatever else can be thought-up. I don't need government forcing me to carry more ID on me or waste any time getting and maintaining that ID or being held responsive for whatever query that takes up my time in life.
So, they were for Executive Orders before they were against them?
One step at a time. First the credit report for convicted felons returning to the general population then before you know it, property deeds for the general population, felon or not! Oh, that would be "gentlemen" landowners only. You know, like the founding fathers intended!
Is anyone forgetting that credit reports are made by and only by three corporations? How do we know that Experian isn't going to "conveniently" have a "computer malfunction" that makes credit reports requested for felons amazingly inaccurate, especially if there's something on the ballot relating to finance or business?
I'm not ordinarily a conspiracy theorist, but what do these facts suggest?
The United States is the world's leader in incarceration with 2.2 million people currently in the nation's prisons or jails -- a 500% increase over the past thirty years.
More than 60% of the people in prison are racial and ethnic minorities. For Black males in their thirties, 1 in every 10 is in prison or jail on any given day. These trends have been intensified by the disproportionate impact of the "war on drugs," in which two-thirds of all persons in prison for drug offenses are people of color.
Nationally, an estimated 5.3 million Americans are denied the right to vote because of laws that prohibit voting by people with felony convictions. An estimated 13% of Black men are unable to vote.
The satisfaction of court-imposed restitution, fees and fines as a barrier to restoration of voting rights is another form of poll tax.
When is a person who has served their time allowed to participate in democratic life again? Are all sentences life sentences now?
They know demographics are against them and so like all corrupt parties, they want to make it harder and harder for people to vote. It always makes me laugh when I heard Republicans talk about freedom. And they're busy in several states taking a basic right of freedom of a citizen -- the right to vote -- away.
Along with the social agenda they have been pushing in a lot of state legislatures. We won't be able to vote for the things we want to keep, the powers that be will vote FOR us to ensure that we live the way they want us to. And that includes the lousy pay and benefits for living under their thumb.
I am not usually a conspiracist. But it almost seems as if C Street, the Evangelicals, the Prolifers, the 1% have started something 20 years ago and its coming to fruition now. Just like in "Independence Day, "they position their troops, get things in order, then POW."
"The people’s fundamental right of suffrage preceded and gave birth to our Constitution (the sole source of the legislature’s so-called “plenary authority”), not the other way around. Until the people’s vote approved the Constitution, the legislature had no authority to regulate anything, let alone elections. Thus, voting rights hold primacy over implicit legislative authority to regulate elections. In other words, defendants’ argument that the fundamental right to vote must yield to legislative fiat turns our constitutional scheme of democratic government squarely on its head."
-- League of Women Voters of Wisconsin v. Walker
I don't think the Iowa Governor's requirements will stand up in court -- even this insanely conservative court. It's amazing that Republicans are working so hard to suppress the vote. They know that America is changing and they are on the loosing side. It makes sense to try to rig the vote in your favor, especially when your party is seen as crazy, inept bigots. They can't hold the vote back forever and sooner or later they will become a fringe party, incapable of even winning control over a dog sled race, let alone our government.
They can't hold it back forever, true. However, imagine the damage they can do to this country in 20 years? I keep hoping and Jeb Bush said, that the right wing of the party will again swing back to center. I don't think so. I think it will go farther to the right.
I have a felony conviction, and fortunately live in a state where my rights restored.
But... the way it's going, being a liberal will soon be a felony offence.
Because we are all Socialists, Communists and atheists. The right wing uses these words as words of fear for their base. they keep them fearful of the word socialist, and we will never get back to the center, because the CENTER will then become Socialists.
Start convicting the rich and powerful of white collar crimes as aggressively as we do the poor and desperate of petty theft and victimless crimes, and see how enthusiastic Republicans suddenly become about felons' voting rights.
You beat me to this one. My thoughts exactly. If we would go after white collar crime as diligently as we go after the poor and those of color, the tenor of the discussion over restoring voter rights would change quickly.
Had we put Dick Cheney and a bunch of the other Bush cronies in jail where they belong, felons would probably have the right to vote while they're IN prison, let alone after they get out.
Governor BRAINDEAD ruined our state before now he is doing it again this job killing money hungry liar needs to go out of our state and stay gone . He has never been any good not in the 80s when Iowa 350000 people because of job loss by him and reagan and sure the heck is no good now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And Christi Vilsack is running for Representative of district 4. We are hoping she can take the position away from Steve King. Because some of the new district is liberal. However, the NW Iowa conservative farmers are all old Republicans and will vote for Steve King, forever.
Republicans are currently complaining about the "tyranny" under Obama, completely forgetting the complaints early in the GWB presidency about the "imperial presidency" and Cheney's claims that more power had to be lodged in the office of the Commander in Chief. All the current screwing around with voting rights on the part of Republicans is going to come back to bite them in the end. It's just too bad it will take an indeterminate number of years for it to happen. In circumstances like this, I can't help quoting that Book so many Repubs claim to hold in high regard: "Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on the one who starts it rolling" (Proverbs 26.27). I hope it crushes them when it rolls back on them!
1 in 32 americans are incarcerated, which means that many more are felons. In a republic without true justice, America forces 95% of all cases into a plea bargain. prosecuters dont like to lose, jury trials cost money so that is our reality. Prisons are big biz, and they dont want people to have a fair shake. That is proven by our unemployed. Not the rate, but the actual unemployed. The treasury announced there are only 109.5 million non farm payroll jobs in america, however that is 100 million short of our able bodied workforce. If anyone has faith in this system or politics in general, then I encourage them to keep supporting the powers that be and just wait for it to be their income lost, their house foreclosed on, their child sent to war. Wake up prisoners and demand that the FED be abolished. Money trumps governments. Fake worthless currency managed by the occupations of usury that have enslaved you.
So we're going back to the Founding Fathers...who originally wanted only land owning white men to vote. Yep, sounds like the Republicants.
Don't break the law and you wouldn't have to worry about it. I could care less if felons get the right to vote.
So, when you're wrongfully convicted by our not-so-wise criminal justice system, you'll be fine with losing your rights?
If these are the requirements to vote, then they should also make them the requirements to donate cash to political campaigns. Then we will see how long the GOP continues to support these requirements.