>because its not as easy as walk off jail
>and six months later, voila... you can vote.
>its clearly more complicated than that

In two states, you NEVER lose the right to vote. In Maine and Vermont you're eligible to vote even while in prison.

13 more states (~25% of the country) give you back your rights the moment you step foot outside of the prison walls. I even listed those 13 states and the District of Columbia does this ass well.

4 more states give you back your rights after you walk out of prison or after parole is over. This includes California and New York.

20 more states give you back your rights after you leave prison OR after probation is completed.

We're now at 39 out of 50 states. The remaining 11 states even have conditions in place where a felon can regain his or her ability to vote. For example:

Alabama will allow you to petition for reinstatement immediately after serving your time, but will not allow it for certain crimes (murder, rape, incest, sexual crime against children, and treason)

Arizona will give you your rights if it's your first felony, but a second+ felony will require you to petition the county for your rights back.

Tennessee allows felons to petition to have their rights reinstated unless you were convicted of murder, rape, treason and voter fraud.

and so on and so forth.

I used my boy as an example because Michigan is one of the states that reinstates your rights as soon as you walk out of prison.

>
>those laws essentially disenfranchise a disproportionately
>large number of felons
>and for very lengthy periods of time

Read on the subject. If you're out of prison without parole or probation on you, you're good to go in 75% of the states. If you have probation or parole you have to wait until it's done in any state that has it as a stipulation, but you WILL regain those rights.

>at the same time as making it incredibly difficult to get a
>job
>
>ban the box is a start

This is where we agree. In much of the developed world having a felony in your past does not hinder you from employment. There was a thread about this on Slashdot a while back and it seems many of those replying to the thread echo this sentiment:

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/14/12/07/1332245/ask-slashdot-can-a-felon-work-in-it

"I think there's a circular logic somewhere there. If you don't have a job, I guess you have a lower threshold for crime. If you have a job, and everything to loose, I guess crime is not so tepmting.

In most of Europe, criminal convictions is simply irrelevant to jobs. Some jobs require your record, but mostly not the full - only a limited record. For instance, if you work with kids, you need a record clean of child abuse and sexual assaults. But for a general job in IT? Noone would even ask about your record. I have not been asked ever - except for a visa application to the USA.

I believe the European system is better at integrating convicts back into soceity, stopping them from committing more crime."

>
>i dont know why we want to base our ideologies on people we
>know
>
>i can also bring up a cuz or two who's reality is different
>what is discussed e.g
>does this make my anecdote more credible?

No, it means yours falls in line with exactly what I have already posted. Depending on the state and the crime you may have your right to vote stripped from you.


>shit, i can bring up friends of mine who aint legal and who
>are working some really good as jobs
>definitely not farm labour
>would that mean majority of illegal workers are making paper?
>and sorry, this is not aimed at you, per se..
>its just a trend i see in posts these days
>'let me bring up someone i know.....
>ugh
>
>its such a lazy way of making a point

If you really think about what I posted nothing you've said is contrary to what I posted. Hell, just look at the links I threw up, they support BOTH sides of this.

In some states (11 to be exact) the nature of the felony can get your rights stripped. This means not all felonies will get your rights stripped so while your cousin may not be able to vote someone that has a *different* felony conviction would be able to.

The lasw are clear in this regard: there's space for both sides of this coin to exist, it's just not as severe as a lot of folks make it out to be.