U.S. Senator Rand Paul Seeks to Restore Voting Rights in Federal Elections

(From The Sentencing Project)

Disenfranchisement News National

U.S. Senator Rand Paul has introduced a bill that would restore voting rights in federal elections to those convicted of non-violent felonies. Voting rights restoration is the newest addition to a series of criminal justice reforms backed by Paul. He has supported legislation to scale back mandatory minimum sentencing for those convicted of drug offenses and supports various other reforms, including reclassifying some felony drug offenses as misdemeanors.

Speaking on Meet the Press, Paul said, “If we’re the party of family values and keeping families together, and the party believes in redemption and second chances, we should be for letting people have the right to vote back.”

Nonetheless, Paul has drawn some criticism from the right. Roger Clegg, CEO of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a conservative think tank focusing on race and ethnicity, stated that by introducing voting rights legislation, Sen. Paul “has shown himself to be someone who does not take the Constitution seriously.” Voting rights advocates have praised Paul’s legislation, although many prefer legislation introduced by Sen. Ben Cardin, which would extend voting rights to those convicted of any felony upon leaving prison.

Paul says that re-enfranchising people convicted of non-violent felonies would help reduce racial disparities. Currently, nearly 8.0% of the black population cannot vote, compared with 1.8% of the nonblack population. “There’s a racial outcome to the war on drugs. Three out of four people in prison for non-violent drug offenses are black and brown,” Paul said. “White kids are using drugs at the same rate black kids are.”