[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 32 (Tuesday, March 2, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E306]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   INTRODUCTION OF CIVIC PARTICIPATION AND REHABILITATION ACT OF 1999

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, March 2, 1999

  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to today introduce, along with 
27 cosponsors, the Civil Participation and Rehabilitation Act of 1999. 
This legislation grants persons who have been released from 
incarceration the right to vote in Federal elections. At a time when 
our Nation faces record low voter participation, this legislation 
represents an historic means of both expanding voting rights while 
helping to reintegrate former felons into our democratic society.
  The practice of many states denying voting rights to former felons 
represents a vestige from a time when suffrage was denied to whole 
classes of our population based on race, sex, and property. However, 
over the past two centuries, these restrictions, along with post-Civil 
War exclusions such as the poll tax and literacy requirements, have 
been eliminated. Unfortunately, the United States continues to stand 
alone among the major industrialized nations in permitting an entire 
category of citizens--former felons--to be cut off from the democratic 
process.
  Denial of suffrage to these individuals is no small matter. A recent 
study by the Sentencing Project and Human Rights Watch reveals that 
some 3.9 million Americans, or one in 50 adults, is either currently or 
permanently disenfranchised as a result of state felony voting laws. 
This includes an estimated 1.4 million African American men, or 13 
percent of the total population of black adult men. In two states 
(Alabama and Florida) almost one in three black men is permanently 
disenfranchised, while in five other states (Iowa, Mississippi, New 
Mexico, Virginia, and Wyoming), one in four black men is barred from 
voting in elections. Hispanic citizens are also disproportionately 
disenfranchised.
  In addition to diminishing the legitimacy of our democratic process, 
denying voting rights to ex-offenders is inconsistent with the goal of 
rehabilitation. Instead of reintegrating such individuals into society, 
felony voting restrictions only serve to reaffirm their feelings of 
alienation and isolation. As the National Advisory Commission on 
Criminal Justice Standards and Goals has concluded, ``if correction is 
to reintegrate an offender into free society, the offender must retain 
all attributes of citizenship.'' Clearly this includes voting--the most 
basic constitutive act of citizenship.
  The legislation I am today introducing constitutes a narrowly crafted 
effort to expand voting rights for ex-felons, while protecting state 
prerogatives to generally establish voting qualifications. The 
legislation would only apply to persons who have been released from 
prison, and it would only apply to federal elections. As such, my bill 
is fully consistent with constitutional requirements established by the 
Supreme Court in a series of decisions upholding federal voting rights 
laws. The legislation is supported by a broad coalition of groups 
interested in voting and civil rights, including the NAACP, ACLU, the 
National Council of Churches (National and Washington Office), the 
National Urban League, the Human Rights Watch and the Lawyers Committee 
for Civil Rights, among many others.

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