New York – New York State plans to restore voting rights to about 35,000 New York felons on parole who previously were barred from casting a ballot until they completed their parole, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday.
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Cuomo will issue an executive order to restore voting rights to those felons already on parole as well as those who enter the parole system each month, a spokesman said.
Most convicted felons in the United States face hurdles and roadblocks to voting, which vary by state. Two states, Maine and Vermont, have no felony disenfranchisement laws and even allow felons to vote while in prison, said Morgan McLeod, spokeswoman for The Sentencing Project, a non-profit advocacy group for criminal justice reform.
Four states – Florida, Kentucky, Iowa and Virginia – ban felons from voting for life, unless their rights are restored by their governor, as Cuomo has vowed to do, said Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project.
“They work, pay taxes, and support their families, and they should be permitted to express their opinions about the choices facing their communities through their votes, just as all citizens do,” Cuomo said in a statement.
To all sane people …this is normal ????
Makes sense. He gets 35,000 more Democrat voters.
But only if they vote in accordance with the governor wishes they vote for
I guess the aguda benefits from this as well
It is not good when the Government can decide who can vote. Such a power could be easily abused. The number of felons is small and I can see no danger is allowing everyone to vote.
Maybe Cuomo should wait until they have successfully completed their parole and proved that they will not re-offend (as a high percentage of those on parole do).
If anybody thinks that this useless governor did it out of kindness is out of his head. He just did it to get more democrat votes because all criminals vote for democrats. What a panderer.
Obama never met a terrorist he wouldn’t support. Cuomo never met a felon he wouldn’t support.
What’s with these Dems always looking to support evil?
Does anyone here understand what parole is? It is the gesture to allow a convicted felon a chance to complete his/her sentence on the outside, but under supervision. They are still under sentence, and should not be granted the right to vote until completion of their sentence. This governor is plain nuts.