Vilsack backs felon voting rights
By Todd Dorman
http://www.qctimes.net/articles/2005/06/18/news/local/doc42b3abb712809989525686.txt
DES MOINES -- Gov. Tom Vilsack said Friday he will sign an executive order on Independence Day restoring voting rights to thousands of felons who have completed prison, parole and probation terms.
The order will mean automatic voting rights restoration for "disqualified electors'' who finished their time in prison, on probation or on parole as of July 4. The order also creates a streamlined process for offenders released from state custody or supervision in the future.
Vilsack said Iowa is only one of six states that does not automatically restore voting rights to offenders.
And the predictable bigoted and hypocritical and just plain stupid responses-
"Are we going to let baby rapers and meth producers vote?'' said Rep. Clel Baudler, R-Greenfield, chairman of the House Public Safety Committee. "I would guess this will be a major election issue in 2006."
House Speaker Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City, also decried the planned order.
"This is exactly the kind of mixed signal that waters down Iowa's tough-on-crime reputation,'' he said in a statement.
As for the numbers...
It is uncertain how many felons will see their rights restored July 4. The Iowa Secretary of State's office has a "felon list'' with 58,000 names, although officials are still working to delete the names of individuals who remain in prison, died or moved away.
Righttovote.org has the full number of people disenfranchised by Iowa at 100,000, of whom ~15-25,000 are the presently incarcerated.
Oh, the partisan meaning of this...ex-felons have a voting rate of 10-15% in the states in which they are not barred, matching the rates of their age and socioeconomic class (generally the working poor). These people vote at increasing rate as they age, i.e. distance in time from their incarceration. These vote Democratic at very high rates- around 90%.
This arguably wipes out the Bush margin in Iowa of 2004- though moderate Republican defection will probably be a far larger phenomenon in '06 and '08.