Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas A Watson who wrote (126715)	2/12/2001 10:32:19 PM
From: ThirdEye	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

Mr. Watson, you are correct in pointing out that there is no such thing, sans pardon, as an ex-felon. My error in choice of words. The reference was to felons whose civil rights had been restored. You are incorrect in your assumption that felons may petition the court in some states to have these rights restored. In fact, states have many different procedures. Some restore civil rights after a prison term is completed. Others after parole is completed. Others do not restore the right to vote at all. New York is a state, for example, which restores the right to vote after a prison term is completed. There is no petition, no special proceedings or paperwork. Florida is a state, one of only maybe 5-6, that regards a felon as having forfeited the right to vote forever. One of the pending issues I am aware of is a suit in Florida which means to get to the bottom of how some 50000 Florida residents, 8000 of which had only committed misdemeanors in other states, were scrubbed from the voter registration rolls before the last election. There may be quite a few few felons who are parties to this suit. In attempting to deny them the right to vote, Katherine Harris offerred them the option of petitioning Governor Bush for a restoration of their civil right by proving that they were either not felons, or that their rights had been restored in other states. Trouble is, not only had the Florida courts, in more than one case, been very specific in instructing the Governor and the Secretary of State that what they were doing was illegal, it is also unconstitutional for one state to disregard the laws or attempt to overrule the laws of another state. In other words, Florida cannot force a citizen to petition the Governor to restore a right that they already have. The other case, as far as I know, is an ongoing review by the Justice Dept.