(Article by Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis, cross-posted from our Facebook campaign site.)
A friend of ours who served time in a federal penitentiary for a felony conviction and lives in District 8, recently said he would vote for Michael this fall if he had voting rights.
Like him, we assumed California felons were stripped of this right and we asked around for facts about restoring the vote for former prisoners. Here's what one observer of the criminal justice system told us:
"I think your friend’s information is wrong about his voting rights. Felons in California may vote as long as they are not currently in custody for a felony conviction or actively on felony parole. If anything, we need a campaign around educating felons about the rights they don’t realize they have."
We investigated further and found this information at the NonProfitVote.org site for California"
"Individuals convicted of a felony are ineligible to vote while incarcerated and on parole. Voting rights are automatically restored upon completion of parole, and people on probation can vote. Ex-offenders should re-register to vote." (Source: http://tinyurl.com/jwd2nop)
Digging down for details about former inmates voting by mail, the California Secretary of State's site (http://tinyurl.com/55fwbh) mentions that this option is available for them as with all eligible voters and the secretary links to this online method of registering to vote: http://registertovote.ca.gov/.
Let's all spread the word that felons out of custody and off parole can vote, and also encourage everyone to register to vote in the fall election.
No comments:
Post a Comment