It doesn’t look like the Mississippi Legislature is prepared to do much to restore voting rights to felons who have completed their sentence.
Mississippi Today is reporting that lawmakers are inclined to do no more this year than possibly restore voting eligibility to those who get their crimes expunged from their record.
There are several problems with this. The first is that expungement is not an easy process. It may not be as hard as the current system of getting voting rights restored, which requires a separate act of the Legislature or a gubernatorial pardon for each petitioning felon. But it still is cumbersome and often requires going to the expense of hiring an attorney to navigate the process.
The second is that using expungement as the criteria for restoring voting rights is too limited. A Republican lawmaker told Mississippi Today that most of the crimes eligible for expungement are not the crimes that cost the perpetrators their voting rights for life if convicted.
What are those crimes? It’s a hodgepodge, ranging from grievous violent crimes, such as murder and rape, to more mundane nonviolent crimes, such as writing too many bad checks. Meanwhile, some felons, such as those accused of selling drugs, don’t lose their voting rights at all. They are eligible to vote even while behind bars.
It’s an inequitable, illogical system that, according to an ongoing lawsuit, is rooted in a post-Civil War effort to keep African Americans from voting and maintain white political domination.
It shouldn’t require a court to force lawmakers to do what’s logical and fair. A lifetime ban on voting is an appropriate punishment for certain crimes — such as murder, rape and the sexual abuse of children. Those convicted of such heinous offenses should forfeit their right to decide who holds office or what laws are enacted by popular referendum.
For most other felons, especially those convicted of nonviolent crimes, their voting rights should be suspended only while they are doing time, then automatically restored once they have completed their sentence and are no longer under state custody or supervision.
That’s the way it works in most states. Mississippi should stop dragging its feet and follow them.
