>>>>Florida has over 30,000 felons registered to vote, which is in violation of Florida law. The story says Ds outnumber Rs by 2 to 1. I'll bet that is new math. My experience says it's more like 100 to 1. More to follow. . . .
>>>>
>>>>http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-flbfelons1012sboct12,0,3762352.story
>>>
>>>I have to admit I'm a bit amazed that any state has a law that says a citizen can't vote. 10 states have this sort of law - astonishing.
>>
>>I believe they relinquish that right when they commit and are convicted of the felony.
>
>In 10 states out of 50.


it is generally legal for states to disenfranchise felons — the U.S. Constitution says so. (OK, not in so many words, but that's how the Supreme Court reads section two of the 14th Amendment.) Forty-eight states prohibit current inmates from voting, 36 keep parolees from the polls, 31 exclude probationers, and only two — Vermont and Maine — allow inmates to vote, according to the Sentencing Project, a liberal advocacy group in Washington, D.C.

...

In 1800, no state prohibited felons from voting. On the eve of the Civil War, 80% of the states did, largely to block African Americans, who though rarely allowed to vote were disproportionately represented among felons. Today, the impact of these laws still falls disproportionately on poor, minority males, a fact that seems to have skewed more than a few elections. Anyone familiar with the details of the deadlocked 2000 presidential race will recall that tens of thousands of likely Democratic voters were disenfranchised because of Florida's laws against voting by felons. A relative handful could have made Al Gore president.


http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1553510,00.html