The prison bloc

Most Mainers probably don’t know they live in one of just five states that allow felons to cast votes from behind bars. That’s partly because most Mainers are honest, law-abiding types who stay on the right side of the bars, and partly because the issue’s never been raised.

Well, it’s been raised, and if L.D. 1607 continues its course through the Legislature, it will be before the voters in the form of referendum for a constitutional amendment next fall.

It’s a thought-provoking issue. The bill’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Richard Bennett says that with rights come fundamental responsibilities, including the responsibility to respect the rights of others. Felons who have violated the basic right of others to be secure in their persons and property should be made to forfeit their right to vote for the term of their sentences, their voice in directing public policy should be silenced while they are paying their debt to society. Or, as the senator puts it: “Law-breakers ought not to be law-makers.”

Sen. Bennett also wonders, with good reason, why a state that denies the franchise to innocent people with mental illness awards it to people who have committed Class A, B, or C crimes. And he notes that his is a modest proposal: 45 states deny the vote to felons; 14 not just while in prison, but for the rest of their lives. The four states that join Maine in swimming against the tide are Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Utah.

Making the case for the other side is the Maine Department of Corrections. The DOC’s view is that prisoners lose the most fundamental rights, such as the right to freedom, when the cell door slams shut. The right to vote gives prisoners a stake in the society most will someday rejoin and that small piece of civic responsibility can be an important part of the complex rehabilitation puzzle.

Further, the DOC says, state law requires prisoners to vote by absentee ballot in their home town, providing them with a connection to community that will be so important upon release. It also ensures that a town or legislative district that hosts a prison will not fall under the control of an organized bloc of felon voters. And besides, only about 10 percent of the state’s 1,600 adult prisoners bother to vote, anyway.

Adding to the complications of this issue is that it is unclear which way the felon/voting tide is running. Massachusetts is considering beefing up its no-vote statute with a constitutional amendment barring prisoners from forming political action committees. And while Utah recently joined the New England states in prohibiting the vote, moves are afoot in several of the other 45 states, such as Michigan, to extend it. Despite Supreme Court decisions to the contrary, civil libertarians argue that it is unfair that prisoners in some states can vote in federal elections while others cannot, and the NAACP seems to be gaining ground with its position that the voting ban is discriminatory.

Sen. Bennett says the first reaction he gets from people he discusses this with is that most initially assume prisoners can’t vote and are surprised to learn otherwise. It’s an important, interesting issue. It deserves a vigorous debate and a constitutional amendment referendum campaign is a good place to stage it.