Felons and Voting Rights

In the state of Washington where I live, there is a bill before the legislature that would allow convicted felons to vote immediately upon release from prison.

As it stands now, a convicted felon must not only serve his or her time, He or she must also successfully complete their probation and any court ordered fines and restitution.

From the Seattle P-I:

The issue jumped to the front burner after the ultraclose 2004 governor's race, when a number of felons illegally voted without having proof that their voting rights had been restored. Democrat Chris Gregoire won the election by just 133 votes and a judge held that more than 1,600 votes were illegally cast, many by felons.

Despite that, the judge ruled in Fraudoire's favor so now, they are wanting to make it legal.

Listen to the convoluted reasoning of Rep. Jeannie Darneille, D-Felon who is sponsoring this bill:

"A vibrant and inclusive democracy depends on the fullest possible participation," including ex-cons who are trying to re-enter society, she told the House State Government Committee.

"A vibrant and inclusive democracy"  Who makes up phrases like that?

The current setup can keep one off the voting rolls for years or decades, she said. If restitution, court fees and other costs amounted to $25,000, with interest compounding at 12 percent every year, it easily could take a former convict 20 years to pay off, she said.

"This is discrimination against the poor," Darneille said. "Liberty and justice for all? No, just for some."

Damn the bad luck, huh?  Commit a felony and it costs you.  What's next, because a debt burden like that could give you a crummy credit rating, you get your fines and restitution forgiven?  Maybe we ought to just not even put felons in prison!  After all, it cuts into their ability to make a decent living!

When you commit a felony and you are convicted, there should be severe consequences and you should have to earn your way back into civilized society.  You broke the law.  It was a choice you made.  Live with it bucko!  That means you do your time, pay your fines and restitution. 

When you do that, then we'll welcome you back into the mainstream.

VW

 

Comments

[BobF]

Why is it criminals, those involved with illegal activities, always seem to vote for Democrats?

[Violence Worker]

Becaue like minded people seem to hang together?

VW

[KnoKtaremf]

Actually, it's a way to preserve the two-party system.

At the rate Republicans are going to prison, there won't be any left to vote unless freed felons get the franchise.

Two top Bush appointees already in prison for felonies, another on trial.

Two GOP Congressmen from the last session in prison for felonies.

All those GOP fundraisers in Ohio went to prison in Coingate last year.

Jack Abramoff bought his way into prison buying GOP votes.

Hey, preserve the two-party let Republicans/Felons vote!

[BobF]

Let's see how Knoktaremf's list compares to the Clinton Legacy

The only president ever impeached on grounds of personal malfeasance
- Most number of convictions and guilty pleas by friends and associates*
- Most number of cabinet officials to come under criminal investigation
- Most number of witnesses to flee country or refuse to testify
- Most number of witnesses to die suddenly
- First president sued for sexual harassment.
- First president accused of rape.
- First first lady to come under criminal investigation
- Largest criminal plea agreement in an illegal campaign contribution case
- First president to establish a legal defense fund.
- First president to be held in contempt of court
- Greatest amount of illegal campaign contributions
- Greatest amount of illegal campaign contributions from abroad
- First president disbarred from the US Supreme Court and a state court

Number of individuals and businesses associated with the Clinton machine who have been convicted of or pleaded guilty to crimes: 47
- Number of these convictions during Clinton's presidency: 33
- Number of indictments/misdemeanor charges: 61
- Number of congressional witnesses who have pleaded the Fifth Amendment, fled the country to avoid testifying, or (in the case of foreign witnesses) refused to be interviewed: 122

Ever hear of these?
Abscam
Keating Five
House Banking and Post Office Scandles

How about these fine Democrat Senators and Representatives?
Rep Wayne Hayes
Rep Dan Rostenkowski
Mario Biaggi
Frank Ballance
Mel Reynolds
Albert G. Bustamante
Gary Condit
George Crockett, Jr
Charles Coles Diggs, Jr
Thomas Joseph Dodd
Walter Fauntroy
Angelo Errichetti

Just what two party system are you talking about?

[canuckistani]

LOL! "bucko"???? I haven't heard that one used since Richie Cunningham on Happy Days!

[Violence Worker]

Despite your obvious partisan blindness, neither party has a lock on that corruption thing.

I'm against ANY corrupt politician and I'm not naive enough to think one party is any worse or better than the other.

Criminals, it might be noted, are by and large inclined to vote for Democrats. Why that is, I'll let y'all speculate.

VW

[KnoKtaremf]

I'll take BOBF up on that and here's a list of GOP crooks from the Bush years (hope this'll fit!):

Indicted / Convicted/ Pled Guilty
* Scooter Libby - Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff - resigned after being indicted for Obstruction of Justice, Perjury, and Making False Statements in connection with the investigation stemming from the leak of a CIA operative's identity.
* Lester Crawford - Commissioner, FDA - resigned after only two months on the job. Pled guilty to conflict of interest and making false statements.
* Brian Doyle - Deputy Press Secretary, DHS - Resigned in wake of child sex scandal. Pled no contest to 32 criminal counts.
* Claude Allen - Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy- resigned, pled guilty to shoplifting from Target stores.
* David Safavian - former head of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy at the Office of Management and Budget - convicted of lying to ethics officials and Senate investigators about his ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
* Larry Franklin - intelligence officer, Defense - resigned, pled guilty to passing secrets to Israel.
* Roger Stillwell - desk officer, Interior Department - pled guilty to failing to report Redskins tickets and free dinners from Jack Abramoff.
* Frank Figueroa - senior DHS official, former head of anti-sex-crime Operation Predator - pled no contest to exposing himself to 16-year-old girl in Florida mall. Girl says he fondled himself for ten minutes. Figueroa forfeited his badge, gun, and access to databases; employment status pending internal DHS review.
* Darleen Druyun - senior contracting official, U.S. Air Force - pled guilty and sentenced to nine months in prison for her role in the Boeing tanker lease scandal.
* John Korsmo - chairman, Federal Housing Finance Board - pled guilty last year to lying to the Senate and an inspector general. He swore he had no idea how a list of presidents for FHFB-regulated banks were invited to a fundraiser for his friend's congressional campaign. On the invites, Korsmo was listed as the "Special Guest." Got 18 months of probation.
* P. Trey Sunderland III - chief, Geriatric Psychiatry, Nat'l Institute of Mental Health - admitted to a criminal conflict of interest charge for failing to report $300,000 received from Pfizer, Inc. *As of 12/11/06, still employed by NIMH.
Resigned Due to/Pending/After Investigation
* Carl Truscott - Director, Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Bureau - resigned. A report by the Justice Department's Inspector General found that Truscott wasted tens of thousands of dollars on luxuries, wasted millions on whimsical management decisions and violated ethics rules by ordering employees to help his nephew with a high school video project.
* Joseph Schmitz - Inspector General, Defense - Resigned amid charges he personally intervened to protect top political appointees.
* Steven Griles - Deputy Secretary at the Interior Department - resigned, currently under investigation by the Justice Department for his ties to Jack Abramoff.
* Susan Ralston - assistant, White House - resigned amidst revelations that she had accepted thousands of dollars in gifts from Abramoff without compensating him, counter to White House ethics rules.
* Dusty Foggo - Executive Director, CIA - stepped down following accusations of corruption in connection to the Duke Cunningham scandal. Under investigation.
* Janet Rehnquist - Inspector General, Department of Health and Human Services - resigned in the face of allegations she blocked a politically dangerous probe on behalf of the Bush family.
* Ken Tomlinson, Board Chairman, Corporation for Public Broadcasting; member, Broadcasting Board of Governors - resigned at the release of an inspector general report concluding he had broken laws in spending CPB money to hire politically connected consultants to search for "bias" without consulting the board. At BBG, a separate investigation found he was running a "horse racing operation" out of his office, and continuing to hire politically-wired individuals to do "consulting" work for him. He's still there.
* George Deutsch - press aide, NASA - resigned amid allegations he prevented the agency's top climate scientist from speaking publicly about global warming.
* Richard Perle - Chairman, Defense Policy Board - resigned from Pentagon advisory panel amid conflict-of-interest charges.
* James Roche - secretary, U.S. Air Force - resigned in the wake of the Boeing tanker lease scandal, after it was revealed he had rather crudely pushed for Boeing to win a $23 billion contract.
* Marvin Sambur - top contracting executive, U.S. Air Force - Druyun's boss, Sambur resigned in the wake of the scandal. Investigations cleared him of wrongdoing.
* Philip Cooney - chief of staff, White House Council on Environmental Quality - a former oil industry lawyer with no scientific expertise, Cooney resigned after it was revealed he had watered down reports on global warming.
* Thomas Scully - Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services - shortly after Scully resigned in 2003, an investigation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General found that Scully had pressured the agency's actuary to underestimate the full cost of the Medicare reform bill by approximately $100 billion until after Congress passed the bill into law. Scully was also charged wtih conflict of interest allegations by the U.S. attorney's office for billing CMS for expenses incurred during a job search while he still headed the agency. He settled those charges by paying $9,782.
* Michelle Larson Korsmo - deputy chief of staff, Department of Labor - Helped her husband (see Frank Korsmo, above) with his donor scam. Quietly left her Labor plum job in February 2004, about two weeks before news broke that she and her husband were the targets of a criminal probe.
* David Smith - Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, Interior Department - resigned after shooting a buffalo and accepting its remains as an illegal gratuity. He eventually paid over $3,000 for the dead buffalo, but only after the internal inquiry had commenced.
* Sean Tunis - Chief Medical Officer, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) - Last summer, the State of Maryland suspended his medical license because he faked documentation relating to his medical education. Despite that, he stayed on board for several months at CMS, albeit on administrative leave. He has since been replaced, although it's not clear when because CMS did not announce the switch and has not responded to our calls.
Nomination Failed Due to Scandal
* Bernard Kerik - nominated, Secretary, Department of Homeland Security - withdrew his nomination amidst a host of corruption allegations. Eventually pled guilty to a misdemeanor relating to having accepted improper gifts totaling tens of thousands of dollars while he was a New York City official in the late 1990's.
* Timothy Flanigan - nominated, Deputy Attorney General - withdrew his nomination amidst revelations that he'd worked closely with lobbyist Jack Abramoff when he was General Counsel for Corporate and International Law at Tyco, which was a client of Abramoff's.
* Linda Chavez - nominated, Secretary of Labor - withdrew her nomination amidst revelations that an illegal immigrant lived in her home and worked for her.

[BobF]

Knoktaremf, you've named mostly all bureaucrats. I didn't see any congress critters on the list although their have been a couple lately.

You will notice one big difference between Democrat and Republican "crooks". When Republicans are found out, they almost always immediately resign. When democrats are found out, they still hold on to their office while other Democrats circle the wagons around them. Rep William Jefferson is the perfect example. When Tom Delay was brought up on, what is truing out to be trumped up, charges, he resigned his position and seat in congress. Why, Democrats leave young women to die and they still get reelected.

Rep Foley sends provocative emails to a page and, when found out, immediately resigns. Rep Gerry Studds has sex with a page and is reelected and honored by a democrat congress

[KnoKtaremf]

Republicans resign?

Rep Bob Ney (R-OH) refused to resign even after he was convicted of a felony. Served more than two months -- drawing a salary and running up his pension in Congress.

Foley only resigned after ABC nailed him to the wall (even though the GOP leadership ignored and covered up his kiddie diddliing tendencies for a year).

And Rep Duke Cunningham (R-CA) only resigned after he was convicted.

Safavian, Libby and Allen only resigned after the White House was called and told they'd be taken out in handcuffs because they were under indictment.

The rest of the list shows no halos over the GOP any more than over Democrats. It does show that the current administration has appointed a lot of people with questionable ethics.

[Nick]

"Why is it criminals, those involved with illegal activities, always seem to vote for Democrats?" hah why do ignorant assholes always vote for republicans