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Recovery in the News
Letter to the Editor
A matter of justice
Rev. Patrick Delahanty
Kentucky Courier-Journal
December 30, 2007
Kentucky voters may yet get a chance to consider a constitutional amendment that would restore voting rights to certain categories of felons, once they've served their time.
But the possibility of that happening in 2008 looks slim indeed. Earlier this year, a proposal to restore felons' voting rights passed the state House, then died without a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Fortunately, Rep. Darryl Owens, D-Louisville, who sponsored House Bill 70 along with Rep. Jesse Crenshaw, D-Lexington, is determined to keep hope alive. He believes the proposal can muster the three-fifths majority needed in both houses of the legislature to put it on the ballot.
However, as The Courier-Journal's Joseph Gerth reported the other day, getting the job done isn't going to be easy.
For one thing, there will be the expected resistance from a gaggle of Frankfort lawmakers who want no part in appearing to be weak on crime. In addition, even if Gov. Steve Beshear supports such an amendment, he may be pressed by opponents to resist it -- opponents whose help he will need in putting an expanded gambling amendment on the ballot.
It is easy for politicians to oppose restoring the vote to convicts -- even those who have paid their debt to society. There is not much of a constituency for ex-prisoners.
Some harbor racial motives for not wanting ex-felons to vote, but they don't have to admit that. They can just talk about how undeserving criminals are. Others oppose restoration of voting rights on the assumption that, just because so many criminals come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, they likely will vote Democratic, but, publicly, they can posture against giving criminals this kind of "break."
What these and other opponents should remember is that it's called the "justice" system for a reason. It prescribes punishment, but it also, in most cases, holds out the possibility of rehabilitation and re-entry into legitimate society.
To deny voting rights to those who have paid their debt simply mocks the word "justice." Without a constitutional change, more than 128,000 Kentuckians remain out in the cold, in a civic sense.
Former Gov. Ernie Fletcher put in place onerous obstacles to be overcome by felons who want their voting rights restored by the chief executive -- for example, completion of an essay that explains why the individual's franchise should be restored. That probably scared off many potential applicants.
Let's face it. Such a requirement would keep all too many law-abiding Kentuckians, with no record of any trouble with the law, off the voter rolls.
“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and ...those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” Robert F. Kennedy, June 6, 1967, Cape Town, SA