[Yakima Democrats] Fw: NY Times editorial

Sat Feb 11 07:08:02 PST 2006

Of course, I meant to say rights not tights.
Sorry.  Have a good day and weekend everybody, and a loving St. Valentine's Day on Tuesday.
Tom Bothwell
----- Original Message ----- 
  From: yakdems-announce at yakimademocrats.com 
  To: Yakima Dems MailingList 
  Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2006 7:00 AM
  Subject: Re: [Yakima Democrats] Fw: NY Times editorial


  Voting Tights for Felons!
  Rah Rah.   
  Is this the issue that is supposed to arouse us Democrats in Washington State, and particularly Eastern Washington, to help us reach out to others as we try to overcome our minority party status?
  Lord, I pray not.   Give me a break.
  Tom Bothwell 
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: yakdems-announce at yakimademocrats.com 
    To: Yakima Dems MailingList 
    Sent: Friday, February 10, 2006 2:06 PM
    Subject: [Yakima Democrats] Fw: NY Times editorial


    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Jeff Smith and/or Karen Marchioro 
    To: Jeff Smith and/or Karen Marchioro 
    Sent: Friday, February 10, 2006 12:50 PM
    Subject: NY Times editorial


    Today the New York Times ran the following editorial.  While the editorial comments on a legislative proposal in Pennsylvania it should be important to all Democrats.  It points out that the restrictions on voting imposed on felons was a tactic to keep Blacks from voting given the impact of differential enforcement and incarceration on that community during so much of our nation's history.  It also shows that efforts to restrict voting rights continues as a Republican tactic to keep Democratic voting numbers down. 

    We have had  many responses to our request that our local Party organizations pass resolutions urging legislative action to correct our badly skewed way of handling the restoration of voting rights.  The 34th LD has done so.  And many individuals have responded that they will contact their legislators in support of the bills in the Senate - SB 6651- and the House - HB 2873.  We would like to encourage all to do so as well by calling the Hot Line 800-562-6000.

    There is a national organization that watches sentencing issues, The Sentencing Project www.sentencingproject.org .

     
    ______________________________

     
    February 10, 2006

    Editorial

    Voting Rights Under Siege 
    American laws that strip convicted felons of the right to vote, barring nearly five million from the polls in the last election, are the most punitive and regressive laws of their kind in the democratic world. Several states have recently softened or eliminated the voting bans, and many others are considering laws that could eventually establish voting as a basic American right that should never be curtailed in a way that bars a whole class of people from the polls. 

    This attitude is gaining traction even in the Deep South, which pioneered voting bans to disenfranchise black Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But the new trend toward fairness has somehow vaulted over Pennsylvania, where the Republican majority in the State House is pushing to pass one of the most odious felon-voting bans ever seen above the Mason-Dixon line. 

    Under current Pennsylvania law, people can vote once they leave prison. But a bill pending in the Legislature would disenfranchise those on parole or probation. The bill would go further and bar convicts from voting until the dates when their maximum sentences would expire - even if they had been fully released from the system much earlier. 

    Pennsylvania, a swing state that will hold some critical elections this fall, is being barraged by legislation, championed by Republican lawmakers, that would raise voting barriers, especially for groups that tend to be Democratic. One measure would institute one of the most restrictive voter-identification laws in the nation, in a state that currently requires only first-time voters to prove their identities. Pennsylvanians - who have been at the forefront of fairness in voting rights issues - should not allow partisanship to erase that legacy.

     
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