Felons voting for felons

There is a push in some areas of the country to get ex-felons to the polls this November. I don't have much of a problem with voting laws which allow people, convicted of certain felonies, to regain their voting rights after their debt to society has been paid in full. But I do have a problem with someone mounting an effort to help someone, in this case ex-felons, under the guise of actually giving a damn about the people that they claim to want to help. There is often something more sinister behind it all.

Push to register felons to vote could aid Obama

Here are a few interesting excerpts:

"RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Undaunted by the heat, James Bailey spent his late-summer afternoons walking Virginia's bleakest neighborhoods on the hunt for ex-cons — each a potential voter who might cast the decisive ballot in this hotly contested state........

Nationally, there are roughly 4 million released felons whose convictions have cost them the right to vote at least temporarily, if not permanently. To return to the ballot box, felons must negotiate suffrage laws that vary from state to state, in many cases working with election officials who can be both unfamiliar with the law and hostile to former convicts seeking to register......

Such challenges (getting felons to attempt to get their voting rights restored) matter little to Bailey and others trying to return former criminals to voter rolls, an effort they consider crucial in light of the results of the past two presidential elections: A shift of a few hundred votes in Florida in 2000 would have changed the outcome of the presidential race, and the results in 2004 came down to a margin of 119,000 votes in Ohio.

The nonprofit groups and individual activists making the push on felons' behalf agree the effort is broader this year than in previous elections, even if they aren't necessarily making a coordinated push. They expect that effort to benefit Barack Obama more than John McCain, given that the population of former felons is disproportionately black."

Interesting.......so this effort is not about helping people who have committed crimes, paid their debt to society and would like to return to and contribute to society......its about getting Obama elected.

There's more.....

"Kenneth Glasgow served 14 years on robbery and drug charges in Alabama. Now a pastor, Glasgow launched a voter registration drive inside the prisons in Alabama, where state law allows voting by felons convicted of lesser crimes such as possession of small amounts of drugs, battery or attempted burglary — even while still serving a sentence.

'It's not a black-white thing,' Glasgow said. 'It's that people will see Republicans standing against having people's rights restored while the Democrats aren't.'"

Only Republicans, and not Democrats, stand against restoration of people's rights? Democrats are not standing against people's rights? Really??!! How about my right to privacy, my right to self-defense and gun ownership or my right to keep more of the money that I earn?

Both parties are guilty of expanding government and eroding our individual rights. But to claim to care about ex-felon's voting rights when its really about the "outcome of the last 2 presidential elections" is disingenuous. To claim that a major political party is not working against individual rights when, in fact, that same party has routinely worked to erode the individual rights of law abiding citizens is ridiculous.