The monumental day comes despite two legal challenges that attempted to undercut it. Last Thursday, the Minnesota Court of Appeals struck down a legal challenge by Mille Lacs County District Court Judge Matthew Quinn against Restore the Vote. Quinn had barred at least six defendants from voting as part of their sentences and argued the voting law was unconstitutional.
In an order, Chief Judge Susan Segal wrote that Quinn had no authority to declare the law unconstitutional. And Segal said Quinn’s actions were “unauthorized by law.”
Another lawsuit by conservative voter’s group Minnesota Voters Alliance is pending in Anoka County before District Court Judge Thomas Lehmann. A first hearing was held on Oct. 30, but Lehmann has not issued a ruling on the case yet.
The only reason to deny felons a vote is political malfeasance.
Even inmates should generally be able to and encouraged to vote. Civic participation, social buy in, rehabilitation, nothing bad can come of that, these are supposed to be the point.
The fact that these people are subject to our laws is the same reason they should never lose their voice in it, because then you’re just subject to the system’s whims. The thing that makes their incarceration just in theory to begin with is that they are part of it rather than simply an unwilling kidnapping by power.
To me its disgusting how punitive we are towards our largest prison population on earth. We as a people seem to revel in what we take away from them, even things that might encourage them to be part of society again. We set people who make mistakes, usually because of desperate circumstances to begin with, up to fail in perpetuity, and seem to discourage any effort to rejoin society in good faith.
During the height of Apartheid, South African prisons had voting booths. Let that sink in. Angela Davis gives a really good lecture on the subject - basically George Bush Jr. would never have been elected if incarcerated people were permitted to vote, and we would be living in a very different world.