State Policies on Ex-felon Voting Need Repair
'Mistakes are virtually inevitable' when ex-felons
seek
re-enfranchisement
from the ACLU of WA
The American
Civil Liberties Union of Washington has submitted a friend-of-the-court brief
to provide
guidance in understanding the state's complex system for restoring voting
rights to
individuals who have served time in prison. The brief was filed in Chelan
County Superior
Court in the case challenging the outcome of Washington's
gubernatorial
election.
"The state's current system for restoring voting rights
is a morass that has led to much
confusion among both citizens and election officials as
to who is eligible to vote. The
ACLU is drawing upon its extensive experience with voting
rights issues to provide insight
on how the state's statutes on re-enfranchisement work in
law and in practice," said ACLU
of Washington Executive Director Kathleen Taylor.
While supporting neither side in the case, the ACLU brief points out that for
individuals,
the process for restoring voting rights varies depending on the nature of the
conviction,
when and where the conviction occurred, and factors unique to each person's
case.
Government responsibilities related to reinstating the vote are divided among a
number of
agencies that do not always communicate well with each other. Official records
needed to
restore voting rights are dispersed among many different local and state
governmental
bodies, each with its own policy for retention of records. ACLU-WA staff
attorneys Nancy
Talner and Aaron Caplan wrote the friend-of-the-court brief.
"The current system is so dysfunctional that mistakes are virtually inevitable.
The
system makes it very difficult for people who have completed their sentences to prove
that
they are actually entitled to vote, while other people may have voted because they
did not
realize that they were ineligible to vote," said the ACLU's Kathleen Taylor.
Since 2003 the ACLU has advanced legislation in Olympia that would remedy
problems with
the current system by restoring voting rights when individuals have
completed serving
their time in prison. In 2004 the ACLU filed a lawsuit asking the
courts to restore the
vote to persons in Washington who have served their prison terms but
are denied the right
to vote solely because they owe money. The lawsuit was filed in King
County Superior
Court on behalf of five citizens from around the state who would like to
vote but are
unable to do so.
The ACLU believes the current election system is
seriously flawed in other ways as well
and has testified on a reform bill under
consideration by the state legislature.
According to the ACLU, eligible voters have been
prevented from voting, and each county
interprets the election laws differently, making
for inconsistent treatment of voters.
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