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LWV Takes Voting Rights Message to
Kulani Inmates
Hawaii Tribune-Herald
May 23, 2007
League of Women Voters promotes voting
rights for all
Members of the League of Women Voters of Hawaii County have joined the
national effort to promote discussion on the lack of voting rights for
some of the nation's citizens -- notably the citizens of the District of
Columbia.
D.C. residents "fulfill the obligations of American citizenship by
paying federal taxes, serving in the military and serving their
community, yet are still denied full voting representation in Congress,"
said Susan Irvine, vice president of the LWV of Hawaii.
Marianna Scheffer recently gave an informal lecture and discussed
material on District of Columbia voting rights with her class of high
school equivalency students at Kulani Correctional Facility. These
students are incarcerated felons, who do not have the right to vote in
Hawaii. Most of them had recently taken the "Government and Law" unit of
the high school program and so were able to ask good questions and to
express the opinion that depriving citizens of a basic right like voting
was wrong.
"We discussed the disenfranchisement of
felons, who, no matter what their crime has been and whether they have
served their sentences, are nonetheless citizens," said Scheffer,
immediate past president of the county LWV chapter.
"We also investigated the class and race aspects of disenfranchisement
and the historical trend toward enfranchising more and more groups.
"Discussions with these men are always lively. Of all the students I
have encountered in my many years of teaching, I must say that prisoners
are my favorites because they love to 'talk story.' They become
especially impassioned about issues of rightness and fairness like this
one, said Scheffer.
"We examined the statistics on disenfranchisement of felons from state
to state. Only four states allow incarcerated felons to vote and do not
deprive these citizens of their vote for any reason. Some states
permanently disenfranchise felons, as is the case in Florida, where laws
are presently easing.
"We discussed the way some states effectively
keep down the vote of African American males, who are far more likely
than any other group of Americans to have felony convictions. And of
course a large percentage of D.C. citizens are African-American and have
no one in Congress representing them," said Scheffer. "We concluded as a
group that it is wrong to keep citizens from voting; it is the
birthright of those who are born in the U.S. and is the acquired right
of naturalized citizens and should not be infringed upon for any
reason."
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