The Tennessee Liberal

Yesterday's Times Free Press covered the progress of a bill to make it easier for felons to regain their voting rights in Tennessee. Sen. Steve Cohen take one important track on the issue:

State Sen. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, sponsored a bill that sailed through the Senate with bipartisan support that would simplify what is now a cumbersome process.

"If people have paid their debt to society, they should be reintegrated back into society and have their voting rights restored," he said. "It's the right thing, the Judeo-Christian thing, to do to forgive people and not convict them to eternal damnation."

Rep. JoAnne Favors makes a surprisingly salient point as well:

Rep. Favors said once convicted felons complete their sentences, as well as any parole or probationary periods, they begin paying taxes and should be allowed to vote.

"That's taxation without representation," she said.

This strikes me as a common-sense issue. The right to vote is perhaps our most important, and certainly should not be subject to lifetime revocation just for committing a felony. But don't let that stop the otherwise sane Rep. Gerald McCormick (R, Natch.):

Rep. Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, said he voted against the bill and is contemplating proposing legislation that would prevent convicted felons from ever getting their voting rights restored.

"In my opinion, if someone commits a felony they should not have the right to vote," he said. "I don't want thousands of people who are angry with district attorneys and sheriffs to go out and vote."

Let's look at the real issue here. Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics reports show that black people make up far and away the highest percentage of those held in state and federal prisons. This is a group of people that, when they vote, tend to vote Democratic. One need look no further than the efforts to remove felons (and those whose names were similar to felons) from the voter rolls in Florida in 2000 and 2004 to see that Republicans work actively to use the disenfranchisement of felons to their political advantage. Tennessee can and should so better on something like this.