Houston + Beyond – Why All Felons Should Be Able to Vote

Here in Texas, felons are not permitted to vote until they have completed their entire sentence which is a nebulous and subjective legal term that is unclear and up for debate. In an ideal world, of course, every legal standard would be both clear, and just, but of course we are living in the United States in the year 2024.
    The legal system, as well as policing and prisons, are systems heavily influenced by local, statewide, and federal politics: the policies we enact arguably most heavily impact those whose days are completely under the charge of the state: people in prison or jail, people who are on probation, and people on parole. Taking away the ability of felons to vote on the systems that impact them the most not only prevents them from impacting their own futures, but also holds our entire country back from progress. 
    Florida tried to take a step forward when, “in November 2018, nearly 65 percent of Flor­ida voters approved Amend­ment 4, a constitutional amendment that auto­mat­ic­ally restored voting rights to most Floridians with past convictions who had completed the terms of their sentence,” – but while Florida is moving forward to allow felons to vote, this right does not follow from other states. Much like the laws currently governing marijuana (which are state-based, but remain federally in limbo), this right in Florida only remains if the state where the person was convicted would also allow that person to vote in that state. Having our state and local decisions decided by, and impacted by, the specific location of a conviction muddies the waters of who can vote, and where. 
    Here in Texas, we passed a law making it (still) harder to vote in 2021 – which caused voters of color to have a 30% higher rate of having their ballot (or voter application) rejected. This is absurd - justice should apply to all of us equally, and we cannot allow for it to impact some of us more egregiously than others.
    And if this doesn’t seem unfair yet, “since 1990, nearly one in five new prisoners added to the nation’s prisons was in Texas…” and  let’s also consider that “one out of every four adult black men in Texas is under some form of criminal justice supervision.”
    Local policing undoubtedly has a huge impact on who arrives at the doors of a prison cell – and one way to attempt to course-correct who does that policing, and how a person is treated by the justice system, is of course to allow those who are already impacted by the justice system are still allowed a say in the direction of our entire nation.

Written By: Beck Havens
 Instagram - @bee.eee.see.kay 
Twitter - @uhhhhbeck

​