State
disenfranchisement laws have a disproportionate impact on racial and ethnic minorities.
The center of the contemporary
disenfranchisement debate primarily focuses on whether or not convicted criminals and returning citizens should possess legal rights that other American citizens take for granted (Manza & Uggen, 2008).
Felon
disenfranchisement laws began as a reactionary measure to preserve white dominance soon after African Americans were given the right to vote.
The original
disenfranchisement law "had terrible racial and anti-democratic effects," says Jessie Allen, an attorney who worked on an unsuccessful legal challenge to Florida's felon
disenfranchisement regime in the early 2000s.
The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Elections Reform database was used to identify
disenfranchisement policies enacted by state legislatures from 2001-2010.
The
disenfranchisement practices concern national elections alone, since the right to vote in European elections is guaranteed in the EU treaties.
According to the Commission, the main justification for
disenfranchisement rules - that citizens living abroad no longer have sufficient links with their home country - seems outdated in today's interconnected world.
is the world's only democracy that permits permanent
disenfranchisement.
THE SOURCE: "Voting and Vice: Criminal
Disenfranchisement and the Reconstruction Amendments" by Richard M.
Egypt's High Constitutional Court, HCC, has ruled that a former member of the old regime, Ahmed Shafiq, the last prime minister who served under ousted President Hosni Mubarak, who would have been banned from running should the
Disenfranchisement Law have been implemented, can continue to run in this weekend's Presidential election.
Major Egyptian political parties including the Muslim Brotherhood, April 6 Youth Movement, Coalition of the Youth of the Revolution, Liberal Party and Freedom and Justice Party have called on the people to take to the streets to demand the application of the political isolation or
disenfranchisement law on all corrupted political, social and business figures, in the former ruling regime, from engaging in the presidential electoral process.
3) Proponents of
disenfranchisement schemes justified their exclusions on many bases, but most often relied on popular rhetoric suggesting the groups were second-class citizens, not worthy of the honor of the ballot box.
