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WA: State Rep. works to change law that prohibits people who owe fines but are not in prison or parole from voting

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

Eye On Olympia Darneille takes another run at broadening felons? rights to vote upon release from prison? February 1 Comments (0) Two years ago, the state Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that even after felons are released from prison, the state can bar them from voting until they pay off all their court-ordered fines and fees. For poor people with big bills and few options for employment, this can effectively mean a lifetime loss of the right to vote. State Rep. Jeannie Darneille wants to change the law. Getting out of prison and off probation, she says, should be enough to restore a person?s right to vote. ?It?s not real freedom if you?re excluded from any say in decisions that govern your life,? she said in a press reelase. ?Basing anyone?s voting right on how quickly they can pay a financial debt is unfair and un-American...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on February 05, 2009 (boomark / email).